The Economic History Review

The Marshall Plan and the Spanish postwar economy: a welfare loss analysis1

Volume 65 Issue 1
Home > The Economic History Review > The Marshall Plan and the Spanish postwar economy: a welfare loss analysis1
Pages: 91-119Authors: JOSÉ A. CARRASCO‐GALLEGO
Published online: April 13, 2011DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2010.00576.x

Log in to access the full article.

This article uses historical fact as a natural experiment to measure a country’s welfare loss from shifting from an allowed to a restricted trade situation, based on international trade theory. A welfare loss of 8 per cent of GDP is found. The evolution of domestic import and export prices in Spain in 1940-58 fits international trade theory assumptions. The main years of autarky are not those commonly considered, but 1947-55, marked by the exclusion of Spain from the Marshall Plan and the Madrid Treaty between Franco’s regime and the US. The upper-bound welfare loss for 1947-55 is 26 per cent of GDP.

SHAPE
Menu