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 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.ContentsOpenness, Wage Restraint, and Macroeconomic Stability: West Germany's Road to Prosperity 1948-1959, H. Giersch, K. H. Paqué, 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

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize • Winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award • One of the New York Times' Ten Best Books of the Year “Impressive . . . Mr. Judt writes with enormous authority.” —The Wall Street Journal “Magisterial . . . It is, without a doubt, the most comprehensive, authoritative, and yes, readable postwar history.” —The Boston Globe Almost a decade in the making, this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world's most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first modern history that covers all of Europe, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages to sweep readers through thirty-four nations and sixty years of political and cultural change-all in one integrated, enthralling narrative. Both intellectually ambitious and compelling to read, thrilling in its scope and delightful in its small details, Postwar is a rare joy. Judt's book, Ill Fares the Land, republished in 2021 featuring a new preface by bestselling author of Between the World and Me and The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates.

This book examines the historical, diplomatic, economic, and strategic aspects of the European Recovery Program (ERP) - popularly known as the Marshall Plan.

It is common wisdom that central banks in the postwar (1945–1970s) period were passive bureaucracies constrained by fixed-exchange rates and inflationist fiscal policies. This view is mostly retrospective and informed by US and UK experiences. This book tells a different story. Eric Monnet shows that the Banque de France was at the heart of the postwar financial system and economic planning, and that it contributed to economic growth by both stabilizing inflation and fostering direct lending to priority economic activities. Credit was institutionalized as a social and economic objective. Monetary policy and credit controls were conflated. He then broadens his analysis to other European countries and sheds light on the evolution of central banks and credit policy before the Monetary Union. This new understanding has important ramifications for today, since many emerging markets have central bank policies that are similar to Western Europe's in the decades of high growth.

A selection of autobiographical essays by economists whose work is recognised in current economic thinking. They are based upon introductions to the Edward Elgar series, "Economists of the Twentieth Century". The volume focuses upon those who have experience in Europe, Asia and Australasia.

The European Productivity Agency (EPA) was initially designed as a means to "Americanize" Western Europe through the transfer of American techniques, know-how and ideas to the Old Continent. It increasingly became a framework within which the member countries sought "European" solutions to their problems. This study of the EPA sheds new light on the nature of European cooperation and transatlantic relations in the 1950s as well as on the changes these relations underwent during the early postwar period.