Throughout the Second World War, the United States consistently had the largest gross domestic product (GDP) in the world. Additionally, U.S. GDP grew significantly throughout the war, whereas the economies of Europe and Japan saw relatively little growth, and were often in decline. The impact of key events in the war is also reflected in the trends shown here - the economic declines of France and the Soviet Union coincide with the years of German invasion, while the economies of the three Axis countries experienced their largest declines in the final year of the war.

Throughout the early 20th century, Italy consistently had the highest GDP per capita in Southern Europe, which grew consistently at each given interval. Portugal was the only other country to see consistent growth between the four given years, whereas the civil wars in Spain (1936-1939) and Greece (1946-1949) saw their respective GDP per capita fall in the corresponding years. Overall, GDP per capita across these four countries grew by just 28 percent between 1913 and 1950, although it did drop in 1938 due to the Spanish Civil War. Southern Europe's GDP per capita in 1950 was just 51 percent of the rate in Western Europe.

In 1938, the year before the Second World War, the United States had, by far, the largest economy in the world in terms of gross domestic product (GDP). The five Allied Great Powers that emerged victorious from the war, along with the three Axis Tripartite Pact countries that were ultimately defeated made up the eight largest independent economies in 1938.

When values are converted into 1990 international dollars, the U.S. GDP was over 800 billion dollars in 1938, which was more than double that of the second largest economy, the Soviet Union. Even the combined economies of the UK, its dominions, and colonies had a value of just over 680 billion 1990 dollars, showing that the United States had established itself as the world's leading economy during the interwar period (despite the Great Depression).

Interestingly, the British and Dutch colonies had larger combined GDPs than their respective metropoles, which was a key motivator for the Japanese invasion of these territories in East Asia during the war. Trade with neutral and non-belligerent countries also contributed greatly to the economic development of Allied and Axis powers throughout the war; for example, natural resources from Latin America were essential to the American war effort, while German manufacturing was often dependent on Swedish iron supplies.

This dataset is about book series and is filtered where the books is The Italian war economy 1940 _ 1943 : with particular reference to Italian relations with Germany, featuring 10 columns including authors, average publication date, book publishers, book series, and books. The preview is ordered by number of books (descending).

In the build up to the Second World War, the United States was the major power with the highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in the world. In 1938, the United States also had the highest overall GDP in the world, and by a significant margin, however differences in GDP per person were much smaller. Switzerland In terms of countries that played a notable economic role in the war, the neutral country of Switzerland had the highest GDP per capita in the world. A large part of this was due to the strength of Switzerland's financial system. Most major currencies abandoned the gold standard early in the Great Depression, however the Swiss Franc remained tied to it until late 1936. This meant that it was the most stable, freely convertible currency available as the world recovered from the Depression, and other major powers of the time sold large amounts of gold to Swiss banks in order to trade internationally. Switzerland was eventually surrounded on all sides by Axis territories and lived under the constant threat of invasion in the war's early years, however Swiss strategic military planning and economic leverage made an invasion potentially more expensive than it was worth. Switzerland maintained its neutrality throughout the war, trading with both sides, although its financial involvement in the Holocaust remains a point of controversy. Why look at GDP per capita? While overall GDP is a stronger indicator of a state's ability to fund its war effort, GDP per capita is more useful in giving context to a country's economic power in relation to its size and providing an insight into living standards and wealth distribution across societies. For example, Germany and the USSR had fairly similar GDPs in 1938, whereas Germany's per capita GDP was more than double that of the Soviet Union. Germany was much more industrialized and technologically advanced than the USSR, and its citizens generally had a greater quality of life. However these factors did not guarantee victory - the fact that the Soviet Union could better withstand the war of attrition and call upon its larger population to replenish its forces greatly contributed to its eventual victory over Germany in 1945.

Although Italy had the largest GDP per capita of the four largest Southern European states, between 1913 and 1950, the highest rates of GDP per capita growth were experienced in Portugal and Greece. Compared with GDP per capita in 1913, Portugal's figure grew consistently between each period, facilitated by the relative peace it experienced during the early 20th century. Greece's GDP per capita grew by 68 percent between 1913 and 1938, however it fell significantly over the 1940s due to the devastation caused by the Second World War and Greek Civil War.

During the "Golden Age of Capitalism", between 1950 and 1969, economic growth and output grew across virtually all countries in Europe. Growth in Western Europe was the fastest of any region in the world; Japan was the only individual, major economic power to experience faster growth during this time. In Western Europe, the fastest growth rates were across the southern states*, and in the founding countries of the European Coal and Steel Community (Benelux, France, Italy, and West Germany). Not only was West Germany the largest economy in post-WWII Western Europe, but it also had the highest growth rate of economic output, at an average of 6.2 percent each year. Causes Increased European integration removed many trade barriers and incentivized cooperation; for the countries who were reluctant to integrate, most notably the United Kingdom, economic growth was still achieved but at a much lower rate. Generally, there was also a correlation between social spending and economic growth, as countries who invested the most in public services and welfare also saw the largest rises in GDP throughout this period. American influence was also fundamental, particularly in private investment from American companies and the Americanization of business practices and corporate structures. Manufacturing In terms of manufacturing, West Germany and the southern countries saw the sharpest increases in annual output. West Germany already had a relatively industrialized economy, but greatly expanded these industries in the post-war period. For those states along the Mediterranean, there was a much stronger emphasis on agriculture than industrialization during the interwar period, which meant that when industrialization began in the late 1940s and 1950s it grew significantly. For example, Italy sought to strengthen its agricultural sector in the 1930s by restricting urbanization and migration abroad; after the war, the reversal of these policies saw manufacturing industries boom and employment reached record highs.