TY  - JOUR
AU  - Rockoff,Hugh
TI  - The Paradox of Planning in World War II
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Historical Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 83
PY  - 1996
Y2  - May 1996
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/h0083
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/h0083.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Hugh Rockoff
Department of Economics
75 Hamilton Street
Rutgers University
College Avenue Campus
New Brunswick, NJ  08901-1248
Tel: 609/897-0117
Fax: 732/932-7416
E-Mail: rockoff@fas-econ.rutgers.edu
AB  - According to the standard accounts of the mobilization of resources in the United States during WWII things went badly in the beginning because the agencies in charge were given insufficient authority and were mismanaged.  But then in 1943, the story continues, the War Production Board installed the famous Controlled Materials Plan which solved the major problems, and turned disaster into triumph.  A reexamination of the Plan in light of information on munitions production, however, reveals that the Plan was too little and too late to account for the success of the mobilization.  One implication is that pecuniary incentives may have played a larger role than has been recognized.
ER  -