THE MARSHALL PLAN: GEOPOLITICAL PREREQUISITES AND ECONOMIC IMPACT ON THE PARTICIPATING NATIONS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35774/jee2023.02.210Keywords:
The Marshall Plan, post-war recovery, Western European growth, «economic miracle», World War II.Abstract
The paper provides an analysis of the Marshall Plan and its role in the history of Europe, specifically in terms of the economic revival that followed World War II. Even after more than seven decades since its implementation, the Marshall Plan remains one of the most frequently mentioned programs of international aid. However, there have been debates between historians and economists on whether the program was as impactful as it is described in many history books. The authors look into historical and modern sources to provide a comprehensive view of the Plan’s scale and impact. The results indicate that even though the Marshall Plan was not the only reason for Europe’s economic revival, it was a necessary element in containing the spread of Communism and guiding Western European countries in their post-war economic policies.
JEL: N44.
References
Berger, H. (1995). Germany and the political economy of the Marshall Plan, 1947-1952: A re-revisionist view. In B. Eichengreen (Ed.), Europe’s postwar recovery (pp. 199-245). Cambridge University Press.
Blocker, J. (1997, May 9). Europe: How the Marshall Plan took Western Europe from ruins to union. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. https://www.rferl.org/a/1084818.html
Bolocan, M. (2016). Marshall Plan from conception to reality. Revista Română de Studii Eurasiatice, 12(1-2), 143-160. https://www.ceeol.com/search/articledetail?id=510265
Bostwick, S. (2019, Oct 1). The historical impacts of the Marshall Plan. The Borgen Project. https://borgenproject.org/the-historical-impacts-of-the-marshall-plan/
Carlin, W. (1994) West German growth and institutions, 1945-1990. In N. Crafts & G. Toniolo (Eds.), Economic growth in Europe since 1945 (pp. 455-497). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511758683.016
Deighton, A. (1993). The impossible peace: Britain, the division of Germany, and the origins of the Cold War. Oxford University Press.
Echavarria, P., & Reinbold, B. (2021, Jul 1). Marshall Plan may not have been key to Europe’s reconstruction. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2021/july/marshall-plan-notkey-to-europe-reconstruction
Garrett, A. (2018). Helping Europe help itself: The Marshall Plan. The Foreign Service Journal, 95(1), 26-30. https://afsa.org/helping-europe-help-itselfmarshall-plan.
Gülseven, Y. (2021). The Marshall Plan: Rebuilding Europe to build a US-led hegemonic world order. Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli Üniversitesi SBE Dergisi, 11(3), 1566-1581. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1815831
Hartle, T. (2018, Feb 14). ‘The Marshall Plan’ considers how and why the U.S. became a global superpower [Review of the book The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War, by B. Steil]. The Christian Science Monitor. https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2018/0214/The-MarshallPlan-considers-how-and-why-the-US-became-a-global-superpower
Henderson, D. (n.d.). German economic miracle, In D. Henderson (Ed.), Concise encyclopedia of economics. EconLib. https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/GermanEconomicMiracle.html.
Hinnerschitz, S. (2022, March 30). The Marshall Plan and postwar economic recovery. The National WW2 Museum. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/marshall-plan-and-postwar-economic-recovery
Knapp, M., Stolper, W. F., & Hudson, M. (1981). Reconstruction and WestIntegration: The impact of the Marshall Plan on Germany. Zeitschrift Für Die Gesamte Staatswissenschaft / Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 137(3), 415–433. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40750368
Leffler, M. (1988). The United States and the strategic dimensions of the Marshall Plan. Diplomatic History, 12(3), 277–306. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7709.1988.tb00477.x
Macrotrends. (n.d.). U. S. GDP Growth Rate 1961-2023. https://www.macrotrends.net/ countries/USA/united-states/gdp-growth-rate
McCourt, D. M., & Mudge, S. L. (2022, May 1). Anything but inevitable: How the Marshall Plan became possible. Politics & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/00323292221094084.
Monson, C. (2022, Mar 22). The Myth that the Marshall Plan rebuilt Germany’s economy after WWII. FEE Stories. Foundation for Economic Education. https://fee.org/articles/the-myth-that-the-marshall-plan-rebuilt-germanyseconomy-after-wwii/
Pruitt, S. (2020, May 14). The post World War II boom: How America got into gear. History. https://www.history.com/news/post-world-war-ii-boom-economy
Reichel, R. (2002). Germany’s postwar growth: Economic miracle or reconstruction boom. Cato Journal, 21, 427. https://ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/olj/cato/v21n3/cato_v21n3rer01.pdf
Schmidt, S. C. (1962). The impact of Western European integration on US exports: Part I. Illinois Agricultural Economics, 2(1), 1-10.
Steil, B. (2017, Aug 4). The Marshall Plan and «America First». Project Syndicate. https://www.project-syndicate.org/onpoint/the-marshall-plan-and-america-firstby-benn-steil-2017-08
Stern, S. (1997). The Marshall Plan, 1947-1997: A German view. https://www.marshallfoundation.org/wpcontent/uploads/2014/05/Marshall_Plan_1947-1997_A_German_View.pdf
Tarnoff, C. (2018). The Marshall Plan: Design, accomplishments, and significance. Congressional Research Service. https://sgp.fas.org/crs/row/R45079.pdf
U.S. Embassy and Consulate in the Netherlands. (n.d.). Marshall Plan 1947- 2017. https://nl.usembassy.gov/our-relationship/marshall-plan-1947-2017/.
Wronski, U., & Karres, D. (2022). A boost from the USA. KfW. https://www.kfw.de/stories/kfw/stories/society/social-cohesion/marshallplan/
Received: March 29, 2023.
Reviewed: April 20, 2023.
Accepted: May 5, 2023.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).