Tuesday, March 31, 2009

World War II US Defense Spending

DURING WORLD War II defense spending in the United States exploded from two percent of GDP in 1940 to a peak of 42 percent in 1945 and then back down to seven percent by 1947.
But the data series of “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 every two years: 1940, 1942, 1944, etc.
Fortunately, the Executive Branch budget documents published by the US Government Printing Office at gpoaccess.gov include a set of historical tables, including Table 3.1 — Outlays by Superfunction and Function: 1940–2012. This table includes spending for national defense for each year of World War II. The problem is that the numbers in Table 3.1 don’t match up with the Census Bureau numbers in Historical Statistics.


Comparison of World War II Defense Spending
(millions of dollars)
Spending Item194019411942194319441945194619471948
Census Bureau Numbers for “National defense and international relations”
Total 1,59026,555 85,503 50,461 16,075
Military services only 1,567 22,633 74,670 42,677 10,642
Executive Branch budget numbers in Table 3.1
National Defense 1,660 6,435 25,658 66,699 79,143 82,965 42,681 12,808 9,105

You can see the problem. Not only does the Census Bureau not include the odd years, but the numbers don’t agree with the Executive Branch budget.
We chose to fill in the missing numbers in the the Census Bureau dataset by making them track the trajectory of the numbers in the Executive Branch dataset. Here are the results:


Construction of World War II Defense Spending Dataset
(millions of dollars)
Spending Item194019411942194319441945194619471948
Census Bureau numbers interpolated with numbers from Executive Branch dataset
Total expenditure 10,061 14,161 35,549 82,980 100,520 106,877 66,534 41,403 35,592
Total defense & intl 1,590 6,696 26,555 69,884 85,503 92,016 50,461 19,560 16,075
Military only 1,567 5,875 22,633 60,882 74,670 80,617 42,677 13,888 10,642
Executive Branch budget numbers in Table 3.1
Total federal outlays 9,468 13,653 35,137 78,555 91,304 92,712 55,232 34,496 29,764
National defense 1,660 6,435 25,658 66,699 79,143 82,965 42,681 12,808 9,105

We have interpolated values for national defense and for total federal spending in the odd years by translating the shape of the Executive Branch data into the Census Bureau dataset.






7 comments:

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

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  2. hello friends I really liked this information, a few days ago I read something similar, I would like to receive updates on this issue, as it is very interesting, thanks!

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  3. This is really a fascinating blog, lots of stuff that I can get into. This blog provides its about world war 2nd is really great and informative post on it. Thanks for the update.

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  4. That's actually supposed to be $85 billion not trillion>

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  5. This is great information. I've always been curious about this kind of stuff during WWII.

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