Statistics and the German State, 1900-1945: The Making of Modern Economic Knowledge (Cambridge Studies in Modern Economic History)
Language: English
Pages: 336
ISBN: 0521039126
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Tooze provides an interpretation of the period of dramatic statistical innovation between 1900 and 1945. The Weimar Republic and the Third Reich were in the forefront of statistical innovation in the interwar decades. New ways of measuring the economy were inspired both by contemporary developments in macroeconomic theory and the needs of government. Under the Nazi regime, these statistical tools provided the basis for a radical experiment in economic planning. Based on the German example, Tooze argues for a more wide-ranging reconsideration of the history of modern economic knowledge.
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Their decisions, the Nazi elite and their servants could coolly order the destruction of Europe's Jews. At a deeper level, it was the rationalist dream of remodelling society that was, itself, the root of evil. The hubristic fantasies of social engineers inspired many of the disasters of the twentieth century."' It was modern medicine and genetic theory that gave rise to the idea of the national body and the associated policies of eugenics and racial cleansing. In a Nietzschean twist, Detlev.
To trickle out of the Reich's Statistical Office only in late November 1920.70 As the Reich's Association of Industry pointed out gleefully, such statistics were of little more than historic interest.' 1 Plans were drawn up for a second attempt. To provide effective powers of enforcement, the Reich's administration even embarked on the arduous process of passing a law specifically to enforce wage statistics. At every stage, the employers and their political allies resisted the bill. It did not.
Comparison was done largely by visual means. Calculating the correlation coefficients for each pair of series was simply too laborious. Once a clear pattern of `leads' and `lags' had emerged, the series were grouped together to form so-called `barometers'. While the Harvard Committee's statistical techniques were innovative, its work was barren in theoretical terms. The Committee's proud claim was to operate entirely without the aid of economic theory. Time-series were sifted mechanically and.
Foreign policy line. Irresponsible state spending during prosperity not only made it impossible to service reparations, it also destabilized the business-cycle and narrowed the government's room for manoeuvre in the ensuing recession. Fiscal prudence was called for on both counts. And who better to impose this discipline than the RWM? With the help of Wagemann's establishment, Schaffer's Ministry would exercise macroeconomic supervision over total spending, ensuring that it was compatible both.
By a particular industry in recording units of production, materials and labour. In this sense, the census was no longer a single survey. It was pieced together from hundreds of separate enquiries. The census thus demanded a new level of knowledge on the part of the statisticians. It was no longer enough simply to specify the general objective of the survey and to frame a clear set of questions. The censuses of production started from a detailed map of the technical organization of German.