Postwar Economic Reconstruction and Lessons for the East Today

The breakup of the Soviet Union and the consequent extraordinary problems faced by Eastern European nations raise pressing economic questions. The case studies in this book examine significant parallels between the situation in Eastern Europe today and the issues facing Europe and Japan after World War II, offering insights on what kinds of policy actions will be most effective in this difficult period of reconstruction. The essays address such topics as the relative roles of government and the market; economic openness; industrial conversion from war to peacetime production; the roles of institutions, enterprises, the business community, and their work staffs; and external control of policy measures, of resources made available by the outside world, and of the general external environment. In their introductory chapter, the editors provide an overview that addresses the question of whether reconstruction can ever be managed smoothly. Rudiger Dornbusch is Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Wilhelm Nolling is President of the Landeszentral Bank in Hamburg, Germany. Richard Layard is Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics.Contents: Openness, Wage Restraint, and Macroeconomic Stability: West Germany's Road to Prosperity 1948-1959, H. Giersch, K. H. Paque, M. Schmieding. The Lucky Miracle: Germany 1945-1951, H. Wolf. Inflation and Stabilization in Italy 1946-1951, M. De Cecco and F. Giavazzi. Economic Reconstruction in France 1945-1958, G. Saint-Paul. Reconstruction and the U.K. Postwar Welfare State: False Start and New Beginning, P. Minford. A Perspective on Postwar Reconstruction in Finland, J. Paunio. The Reconstruction and Stabilization of the Postwar Japanese Economy, K. Hamada and M. Kasuya. The Marshall Plan: History's Most Successful Structural Adjustment Program, J. B. De Long and B. Eichengreen. Lessons for Eastern Europe Today, 0. Blanchard, R. Portes, W. Nolling.