IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jechis/v57y1997i02p416-444_01.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Institutions and Economic Growth: The Politics of Productivity in West Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, 1945–1955

Author

Listed:
  • Booth, Alan
  • Melling, Joseph
  • Dartmann, Christoph

Abstract

This article reviews Mancur Olson’s ideas concerning the impact of institutions on growth rates and national competitive performance. We suggest that Olson’s “ideal typical” methodology limits the usefulness of his approach and that institutional structures and strategies can be dependent variables. In comparing the performance of three European countries in the postwar period, we argue (contrary to strict Olsonian principles) that changing market and political environments helped to determine the kind of institutional forms that emerged. We question the weight that Olson places on the role of institutional structures and strategies on long-run economic performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Booth, Alan & Melling, Joseph & Dartmann, Christoph, 1997. "Institutions and Economic Growth: The Politics of Productivity in West Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, 1945–1955," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 57(2), pages 416-444, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:57:y:1997:i:02:p:416-444_01
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022050700018507/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Barry Eichengreen & Albrecht Ritschl, 2009. "Understanding West German economic growth in the 1950s," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 3(3), pages 191-219, October.
    2. Jac C. Heckelman, 2007. "Explaining the Rain: The Rise and Decline of Nations after 25 Years," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 74(1), pages 18-33, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:57:y:1997:i:02:p:416-444_01. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/jeh .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.