We evaluate explanations for why Germany grew so quickly in the 1950s. The recent literature has emphasized convergence, structural change and institutional shake-up while minimizing the importance of the postwar shock. We show that this shock and its consequences were more important than...

This paper discusses how economists contributed to OEEC-OECD policies between the 1950s and the 1960s, when OECD emerged as a truly global organization. We aim at offering a contribution, based on extensive archival sources, to what Coats defined the “ambitious effort” to study “the...