I am not sure why the AEA has accepted this paper for publication in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics!
This subject, i.e. the Autobahn network built by Hitler, has been extensively debated and researched since the 1950s! What is new?
From the content of the abstract, the results are clearly a joke or even junk science!
Papers like this make economics look like a sciences of esoterics or marginals!
According to Google Scholar a book by the same title and same authors was already published in 2014! Why the heck did the AEA rehash this subject?
The first author Nico Voigtländer (UCLA Anderson School of Management) has a lifetime citation count of 5,409. Not very impressive!
The second and last author Hans-Joachim Voth (UBS Foundation Professor of Economics, Economics Department, University of Zurich) has a lifetime citation count of 11,173. Somewhat better, but not great either!
Caveat: I did not read the paper.
From the abstract:
"We show that the building of the Autobahn network in Nazi Germany boosted popular support for Adolf Hitler, helping to entrench the Nazi dictatorship. Direct local economic benefits are unlikely to explain the effect. Instead, it reflects successful propaganda: The regime portrayed the Autobahn as a symbol of recovery and the end of austerity. Support rose particularly strongly where highway construction coincided with greater radio availability and in politically unstable regions.
Our findings suggest that visible infrastructure projects can raise support for autocratic regimes when voters are led to associate them with economic progress and an end to political instability."
No comments:
Post a Comment