Sectoral Subsidies in West German Industrial Policy: Programmatic Objectives and Pragmatic Applications from the 1960s to the 1980s
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Ralf Ahrens
Ralf Ahrens studied Modern History, Political Science and Economics at Frankfurt/Main and Freiburg/Breisgau. After receiving his doctorate in Economic History at the Technische Universität Dresden and research positions at the departments of Contemporary History at Dresden and Jena, he has been doing research at the Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam since 2009. Book publications include: Flick. Der Konzern, die Familie, die Macht, München 2009 (with Tim Schanetzky, Jörg Osterloh and Norbert Frei); Jürgen Ponto. Bankier und Bürger. Eine Biografie, München 2013 (with Johannes Bähr); Die “Deutschland AG”. Historische Annäherungen an den bundesdeutschen Kapitalismus, Essen 2013 (ed. with Boris Gehlen and Alfred Reckendrees).
Abstract
After the end of the postwar reconstruction boom, the decline of traditional large-scale industries and intensified international competition increased the demand for state aid in the Federal Republic of Germany. This article discusses the relevance of overall industrial policy concepts for the utilization of subsidies from the 1960s to the 1980s. Concentrating on the federal level, it delineates the development of industrial subsidies in relation to the financial support of other sectors and identifies the main benefitting industries. Then the focus turns to attempts to professionalize reporting on subsidies and ideas on the “scientization” of industrial policy, the disillusionment with these instruments, and debates about subsidy cuts. Overall it becomes clear that the extent and composition of federal subsidies were not the result of a coherent policy.
About the author
Ralf Ahrens studied Modern History, Political Science and Economics at Frankfurt/Main and Freiburg/Breisgau. After receiving his doctorate in Economic History at the Technische Universität Dresden and research positions at the departments of Contemporary History at Dresden and Jena, he has been doing research at the Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam since 2009. Book publications include: Flick. Der Konzern, die Familie, die Macht, München 2009 (with Tim Schanetzky, Jörg Osterloh and Norbert Frei); Jürgen Ponto. Bankier und Bürger. Eine Biografie, München 2013 (with Johannes Bähr); Die “Deutschland AG”. Historische Annäherungen an den bundesdeutschen Kapitalismus, Essen 2013 (ed. with Boris Gehlen and Alfred Reckendrees).
© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- In eigener Sache. 25 Jahre Jahrbuch unter neuer Leitung
- Abhandlungen
- Industrial Policy in Western Europe since the 1960s: Historical Varieties and Perspectives
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- Industrial Policy in Britain since 1970: Changing Values, Assumptions and Mechanisms
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- Sectoral Subsidies in West German Industrial Policy: Programmatic Objectives and Pragmatic Applications from the 1960s to the 1980s
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- When Germany Accepted a European Industrial Policy: Managing the Decline of Steel from 1977 to 1984
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- A European Structural Crisis Cartel as Solution to a Sectoral Depression?
- Forschungs- und Literaturbericht
- Angst, Anpassung oder Anregung?
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- Ein glücksökonomisch modifizierter Human Development Index für Deutschland (1920-1960)
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- In eigener Sache. 25 Jahre Jahrbuch unter neuer Leitung
- Abhandlungen
- Industrial Policy in Western Europe since the 1960s: Historical Varieties and Perspectives
- Abhandlungen
- Industrial Policy in Britain since 1970: Changing Values, Assumptions and Mechanisms
- Abhandlungen
- Sectoral Subsidies in West German Industrial Policy: Programmatic Objectives and Pragmatic Applications from the 1960s to the 1980s
- Abhandlungen
- Structural Policies, regional Development and industrial Specialization in Italy, 1952-2002
- Abhandlungen
- West German Borderland Aid and European State Aid Control
- Abhandlungen
- When Germany Accepted a European Industrial Policy: Managing the Decline of Steel from 1977 to 1984
- Abhandlungen
- A European Structural Crisis Cartel as Solution to a Sectoral Depression?
- Forschungs- und Literaturbericht
- Angst, Anpassung oder Anregung?
- Forschungs- und Literaturbericht
- Ein glücksökonomisch modifizierter Human Development Index für Deutschland (1920-1960)
- Forschungs- und Literaturbericht
- „Ära Voss“
