European economies since the second world war

Book abstract:

This text examines the behaviour and performance of key European economies since the end of World War II. It is not concerned with the European Economy as a whole, so there is little discussion of the range of supranational institutions which have developed in European since the 1950s, although clearly they will be an important factor in the development of individual economies. Individual chapters, written by British and European academics, cover the major economies of West Germany, France, Italy and the UK. The smaller economies are grouped to include chapters on Scandinavia, Iberia, Benelux and the Visegrad states (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia). The other European economies which do not fit easily into these grouping, namely Austria, Greece and Ireland, are not covered.

The main themes that emerge in the course of identifying common features of economic performance within the text are: the rapid growth of the post-war boom between 1945 and 1973; the significance of the liberalisation of international trade in the 1960s; the slowing down of growth after 1974; the acceleration of inflation and rise in unemployment in the 1970s; and finally the shift from the state to the market that was allied to sweeping financial liberalisation in the 1980s. Not every economy fits this template neatly, and the chapters examine to what extent and why each country differs from this pattern.

Bernard Foley is a lecturer in the Departments of Economic and Social History at the University of Liverpool. His interests focus on the development of international capital markets and the economic and financial development of post-war France.