Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/162931 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 2016-09
Publisher: 
Rutgers University, Department of Economics, New Brunswick, NJ
Abstract: 
During World War II the United States rapidly transformed its economy to cope with a wide range of scarcities, such as shortfalls in the amounts of ocean shipping, aluminum, rubber, and other raw materials needed for the war effort. This paper explores the mobilization to see whether it provides lessons about how the economy could be transformed to meet scarcities produced by climate change or other environmental challenges. It concludes that the success of the United States in overcoming scarcities during World War II without a major deterioration in living standards provides a basis for optimism that environmental challenges can be met, but that the unique political consensus that prevailed during the war limits the practical usefulness of the wartime model.
Subjects: 
World War II
climate change
infrastructure
JEL: 
N4
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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