The Arsenal of Democracy: Production and Politics During Wwii
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES THE ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY: PRODUCTION AND POLITICS DURING WWII Paul W. Rhode James M. Snyder, Jr. Koleman Strumpf Working Paper 24158 http://www.nber.org/papers/w24158 NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 December 2017 We thank participants at 2016 PECA conference at Northwestern University, 2017 Wallis Conference at the University of Rochester, Sanford Gordon, and Anthony Fowler for comments. Price Fishback generously provided New Deal spending data. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications. © 2017 by Paul W. Rhode, James M. Snyder, Jr., and Koleman Strumpf. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source. The Arsenal of Democracy: Production and Politics During WWII Paul W. Rhode, James M. Snyder, Jr., and Koleman Strumpf NBER Working Paper No. 24158 December 2017 JEL No. D72,H41,H56,N42 ABSTRACT We study the geographic distribution of military supply contracts during World War II. This is a unique case, since over $3 trillion current day dollars was spent, and there were concerns that the country's future hinged on the war outcome. We find robust evidence consistent with the hypothesis that economic factors dominated the allocation of supply contracts, and that political factors---or at least winning the 1944 presidential election---were at best of secondary importance.
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