Tuesday, March 31, 2009

World War I US Defense Spending

DURING WORLD War I defense spending in the United States exploded from less than one percent of GDP in 1915 to a peak of 14 percent in 1919 and then back down to one percent by 1923.
But the data series of “Series Y 605-637. Federal Government Expenditure, by Function: 1902 to 1970” in the Census Bureau’s Historical Statistics of the United States: From Colonial Times to 1970 only tabulates federal spending for 1913 and 1922, completely missing out on the years of World War I.
But the Census Bureau does publish annual federal government expenditures in another table, “Series Y 457-465. Outlays of the Federal Government: 1789-1970 Series Y 466-471. Outlays of the Federal Government, by Major Function: 1900-1939.” The problem is that the numbers in the two Census Bureau tables don'’t match up.


Comparison of World War I Defense Spending
(millions of dollars)
Spending Item1913191419151916191719181919192019211922
Census Bureau Numbers from “Series Y 605-637. Federal Government Expenditure, by Function: 1902 to 1970”
Total Spending 970        3,763
Total national defense 250         875
Military services only 245         864
Interest 23         988
Census Bureau Numbers from “Series Y 457-465. Outlays of the Federal Government: 1789-1970.”
Series Y 466-471. Outlays of the Federal Government, by Major Function: 1900-1939.
Updated: 4/15/2015
Total Spending 715 725 746 713 1,954 12,66218,4486,357 5,0583,285
Major national security2932982973056027,11013,5483,9972,581929
International affairs and finance5 5 5 6 5914,7483,5004358310
Veterans services and benefits175173176171171235324332646686
Interest 23 23 23 23 25 198616 1,024 749669

You can see the problem. The entire war spending effort is missing from the data series that we are using. And in 1913 and 1922 they don'’t match up.
We chose to fill in the missing numbers by matching the spending numbers from “Outlays of the Federal Government, by Major Function: 1900-1939” to the numbers on the incomplete “Federal Government Expenditure by Function: 1902-1970.” then track the trajectory of the numbers in the Outlays dataset. Here are the results:


Construction of World War I Defense Spending Dataset
(millions of dollars)
Spending Item1913191419151916191719181919192019211922
Numbers interpolated from Outlay table shown in italic. Updated: 4/15/2015
Total expenditure 970 1,005 1,051 1,042 2,308 13,04118,8526,785 5,5113,763
Total defense and intl 250 2532502581,43811,80116,9894,3722,602875
Military only 245 2482452515467,05313,4893,9362,518864
Interest 23 23 22 22 24 1966141,022996 988

We have interpolated values for national defense and for total federal spending by applying the entire Outlays data items to the Expenditures table by adjusting all numbers so that they match the numbers in the Expenditure table for 1913 and 1922.

UPDATED: 4/15/2015

6 comments:

  1. this needs to be of all the countries in the war!!

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  2. seun olorunwumni has 0 friends too ... put that on the chart biaaacchh

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  5. The US government doesn't want to know how volatile the economy can become while in a war, I think the Vietnam withdrawal was caused by economic issues rather than the pressure of public opinion.

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  6. And what money does US government spend now with all those wars?

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