historygeek2021 wrote: ↑20 Jul 2021 19:37
Ok, take your time, no rush.
For what it's worth, your data seem to show that German munitions labor was more productive than the United States during the war, a result that seems absurd.
Here's the data:
Source, U.S. munitions output:
Mark Harrison, reproducing data from Goldsmith
Source, U.S. workforce:
American Industry in War and Transition, Table 12 (p. 35), reproduced here:
The relevant categories are 'Iron & Steel & Products', 'Machinery (excl. electrical)', 'Transportation Equipment (excl. Auto)', 'Automobiles', 'Nonferrous Metals & Products' and 'Arsenals and Navy Yards'.
These categories correspond to Germany's 'Foundries', 'Machinery, transportation and other industrial equipment', 'Iron, steel and plated products', 'Other iron and steel products' and 'Miscellaneous metal products', as well as their corresponding 'Basic materials' categories. These five categories accounted in 3Q43 for 94.0% of Germany's armaments and ammunition production, and 97.7% of that production accomplished by the metalworking industries.
***
Source, German munitions output:
Mark Harrison, reproducing data from Goldsmith
Source, German workforce:
USSBS, The Effects of Strategic Bombing on the German War Economy, Appendix Table 9
To construct yearly averages, I used the data for 05/31 and 11/30, as well as for 11/30 of the preceding year. Thus, the average for 1942 is 11/30/1941, 05/31/1942 and 11/30/1942. 1943 follows the same pattern. For 1944, for lack of data it is just the average of 11/30/1943 and 05/31/1944.
The categories used for Germany are:
2. Blast furnaces, steel works and rolling mills
3. Nonferrous metals
8. Foundries
9. Machinery, transportation and other industrial equipment
12. Iron, steel and plated products
13. Other iron and steel products
14. Miscellaneous metal products
They correspond to the categories used for the U.S.
historygeek2021 wrote: ↑20 Jul 2021 19:37
The relative industrial productivity of Germany and the United States is the topic of this thread, and it's exactly what Broadberry analyzes. No one has produced any substantive rebuttal. Tooze confirms Broadberry's findings. The United States was far more productive than Germany throughout the first three quarters of the 20th century. It's a simple fact.
More productive, yes. 'Far more' is just a superlative. The data indicate that Germany maintained roughly 2/3 of the U.S. productivity in the years 1942-44, and this with a significant share of its workforce being constituted of slave labor, to say nothing of the adverse effects of strategic bombing that began in 1943.
Note that this 2/3 overall ratio closely tracks that calculated on a weight basis for airframes.