The European Economy since 1945: Coordinated Capitalism and Beyond
Author: Barry Eichengreen
In 1945, many Europeans still heated with coal, cooled their food with ice, and lacked indoor plumbing. Today, things could hardly be more different. Over the second half of the twentieth century, the average European's buying power tripled, while working hours fell by a third. The European Economy since 1945 is a broad, accessible, forthright account of the extraordinary development of Europe's economy since the end of World War II. Barry Eichengreen argues that the continent's history has been critical to its economic performance, and that it will continue to be so going forward.
Challenging standard views that basic economic forces were behind postwar Europe's success, Eichengreen shows how Western Europe in particular inherited a set of institutions singularly well suited to the economic circumstances that reigned for almost three decades. Economic growth was facilitated by solidarity-centered trade unions, cohesive employers' associations, and growth-minded governments--all legacies of Europe's earlier history. For example, these institutions worked together to mobilize savings, finance investment, and stabilize wages.
However, this inheritance of economic and social institutions that was the solution until around 1973--when Europe had to switch from growth based on brute-force investment and the acquisition of known technologies to growth based on increased efficiency and innovation--then became the problem.
Thus, the key questions for the future are whether Europe and its constituent nations can now adapt their institutions to the needs of a globalized knowledge economy, and whether in doing so, the continent's distinctive history will be an obstacle or anasset.
Foreign Affairs
Like much modern history writing, this book is as much interpretiveessay as it is descriptive and narrative history, and its interpretive tools are those of the economist. Eichengreen's key thesis is that in the postwar era, most European countries had a workable corporatist system of social bargaining among government, business, and organized labor. That system assured enough business investment for "extensive" growth, providing increasingly skilled labor to close the productivity gap with the United States, and was very successful for a quarter century; it is too often forgotten how poor much of Europe was in 1950. But as the productivity gap narrowed, further growth depended on innovation rather than simply installing high-quality physical capacity. European values, customs, and institutions were less suited than those in the more decentralized and flexible U.S. economy to the uncertainties, risk taking, and volatility required for "intensive" growth through innovation. This thesis is used to explain not only the relative slowdown in European growth but also the rise in European unemployment in the subsequent quarter century. Europeans are now struggling to adapt their incentives to foster innovation — the Lisbon agenda of 2000 — without jettisoning their greater commitment to equality and stability. All in all, this is a superb overview of a half century of European economic development.
Interesting book: How To Raise A Healthy Child In Spite of Your Doctor or Gluten Free Girl
Race and the Invisible Hand: How White Networks Exclude Black Men from Blue-Collar Jobs
Author: Deirdre A Royster
From the time of Booker T. Washington to today, and William Julius Wilson, the advice dispensed to young black men has invariably been, "Get a trade." Deirdre Royster has put this folk wisdom to an empirical test--and, in Race and the Invisible Hand, exposes the subtleties and discrepancies of a workplace that favors the white job-seeker over the black. At the heart of this study is the question: Is there something about young black men that makes them less desirable as workers than their white peers? And if not, then why do black men trail white men in earnings and employment rates? Royster seeks an answer in the experiences of 25 black and 25 white men who graduated from the same vocational school and sought jobs in the same blue-collar labor market in the early 1990s. After seriously examining the educational performances, work ethics, and values of the black men for unique deficiencies, her study reveals the greatest difference between young black and white men--access to the kinds of contacts that really help in the job search and entry process.
Table of Contents:
| List of Tables | ||
| Foreword | ||
| Acknowledgments | ||
| 1 | Introduction | 1 |
| 2 | "Invisible" and Visible Hands: Racial Disparity in the Labor Market | 16 |
| 3 | From School to Work...in Black and White: A Case Study | 37 |
| 4 | Getting a Job, Not Getting a Job: Employment Divergence Begins | 60 |
| 5 | Evaluating Market Explanations: The Declining Significance of Race and Racial Deficits Approaches | 82 |
| 6 | Embedded Transitions: School Ties and the Unanticipated Significance of Race | 104 |
| 7 | Networks of Inclusion, Networks of Exclusion: The Production and Maintenance of Segregated Opportunity Structures | 144 |
| 8 | White Privilege and Black Accommodation: Where Past and Contemporary Discrimination Converge | 179 |
| App | Subjects' Occupations at the Time of the Study | 193 |
| Notes | 195 | |
| Bibliography | 205 | |
| Index | 217 |
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