European economic integration: Undoing 1914-1945

Nikolaus Wolf, 29 May 2008

Prior to 1914, Europe was economically integrated across political borders. The “second Thirty Year War” (1914-1945) put up barriers that post-war European integration has been undoing since the 1950s, returning Europe to a familiar state of economic affairs.

The European division of labour is a stubborn beast. As shown by the case of Germany after the formation of a nation state in 1871, it took a generation of political effort, a war, and the Great Depression to tear apart what had long been growing together (Wehler 1973).

Topics: Europe's nations and regions
Tags: division of labour, EMU, Europe, Great Depression

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Demand for white collar workers increases with the complexity of the industry concerned

Guy Michaels, 26 June 2007

Nowadays, the division of labour has become much more detailed as the production of most goods involves the coordination of a wide range of occupations. At the same time, white collar work involving generating, storing and communicating information has increased in importance in all firms and organizations. The author of DP6358 finds that this more complex division of labour has led to higher costs of processing information and consequently a raised demand for clerical office workers.

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URL: http://www.cepr.org/pubs/new-dps/dplist.asp?dpno=6358.asp
Topics: Labour markets
Tags: complexity, division of labour, IT revolution, white collar work