Practice question · Multiple choice
Western Europe grew far faster between 1950 and 1973 than either before or since. Which explanation accounts for both the speed and the slowdown?
Hints
- Ask what is easier: inventing a technique or copying one that already works.
- The explanation must predict the slowdown too. Which one does that automatically?
Show the answer
A. Catch-up growth, which decelerates as the gap closes
Why
Borrowing a proven frontier is cheaper than pushing it, so the advantage shrinks as you approach, the deceleration is built into the mechanism rather than caused by a separate event. Reconstruction and Marshall aid matter but were finished long before growth slowed, so neither times the turn.
Practise The Golden Age of Capitalism
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