How much can a victor force the vanquished to pay? France under the Nazi boot

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Rutgers University System; Rutgers University New Brunswick; Universite Libre de Bruxelles
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• 发表日期: 2008
• 页码: 1-45
• 关键词: WAR; finance; COSTS

摘要

Occupation charges paid by France to Nazi Germany represent one of the largest international transfers and contributed significantly to the German war effort. We employ a neoclassical growth model that incorporates essential features of the occupied economy to assess the welfare costs of the policies that managed the payments to Germany. Our lower bound estimates show that occupation payments required a severe cut in consumption. A draft of labor to Germany and a reduction of real wages added to this burden. Management of the accumulated domestic debt required large budget surpluses; but post-Liberation inflation slashed the real debt.