Would You Agree That the Period Between the 1950s and 1960s Was a ‘Golden Age’ for Western Europe?

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Peoples, Politics and Cultures: The Making of a Globalising World since 1945 Individual Essay Leung Wing Yin Theodora (10589720) Class 02 Submission Date: 17.11.2014 Question 2: Would you agree that the period between the 1950s and 1960s was a ‘golden age’ for Western Europe? What is ‘golden age’? From dictionary, it means a period of time is one of great happiness or success. Depending on this definition and the question’s situation that Western European economics had faced devastation following the end of World War II, I would like to define ‘golden age of Western Europe’ as the country/countries enjoy economic prosperity. I think the years between the 1950s and 1960s were a ‘golden age’, which was a time when economic growth surpassed all historical records, and it will be explained in two aspects below, countries and residents. From the countries’ aspect, it will be examined by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), export rates and industrial growth rates. Firstly, Western Europe’s GDP and per person GDP. GDP is an aggregate measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident institutional units engaged in production. GDP increased represent all residents would benefit from their country’s increased economic production. Between 1950 and 1973, the GDP of Western Europe (include 29 countries) increased at an annualized rate of 4.81 per cent, against a secular growth rate (between 1973 and 1998) of 2.11 per cent, it rose more than twice as rapidly as over any comparable period before or since. The real per person GDP of Western Europe also increased at an annualized rate of 4.08 per cent, against the secular growth rate of 1.78 percent, outperforming all other world regions except Asian. Secondly, Western Europe’s export rates. When a country’s export are high, the buyers of these exports need its currency to pay for those exports, the

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