The 70th anniversary of D-Day passed last week with memorials and celebrations in Normandy and beyond. But one UCLA Anderson researcher posits the sacrifices of so many that day might’ve been avoided if Hitler hadn’t ridden an unexpected landmark to power—the Autobahn.
In the working paper “Highway to Hitler” by Nico Voigtländer, UCLA Anderson assistant professor of economics, and Hans-Joachim Voth, an economist at the University of Zurich, the two researchers ask, “Can infrastructure investment win ‘hearts and minds?’” They conclude that building the motorway network helped Hitler’s Nazi party rise to power through positive propaganda and unemployment reductions. “Our results suggest that road building was highly effective, reducing opposition to the nascent Nazi regime,” they write.
Voigtländer and Voth analyzed voting records between November 1933 and August 1934 and found support for Hitler grew fastest in areas along the Autobahn construction corridors.
Speaking with The Atlantic’s urban-focused online journal CityLab, Voigtländer said government spending can be quite effective in swaying political opposition. "We find strong evidence for changes in voting behavior in one of the most salient examples of infrastructure spending," he told the journal. "Also, we show this in a context of attracting votes from the opposition — i.e., people who were hardest to convince."
For more, head to Voigtländer’s Anderson website or read the CityLab article.
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