The Economics of Conflict and Peace

This work addresses new directions in research on the economic theory of conflict, the cost of war, and the benefits of peace. A collection of 17 papers drawing on contributors from all continents, the volume is divided into four sections. The first discusses novel ways to think about the economics of conflict and peace from theory perspectives. These include discussions of conflict from the perspectives of standard neoclassical analysis and economic geography. An especially interesting paper in this section addresses conflict in the context of the emerging theory of international public finance. A second section deals with military expenditures, economic/human development and economic growth in the US and developing nations of Asia and Africa. The volume enters new territory in sections three and four. Section three contains a set of papers on the economic cost of war and war's aftermath, significantly expanding economists' rather modest efforts to date. Section four is concerned with how the concepts of economics might be operationalized and institutionalized to foster security.

Jurgen Brauer, William G. Gissy

Contents: Introduction; Theory-Approaches and Approaches to Theory: Economics and peace-theory on the eve of World War I; More with less: economics of non-offensive defense, with special reference to Argentina; The economics of conflict, production and exchange; The distribution of military expenditures in the United States: spatial, sectoral, technological and occupational. The Opportunity Costs of Military Expenditures: Human Development, and Economic Development and Growth: Opportunity costs of military expenditures: evidence from the United States; Military expenditures and fiscal constraints in Pakistan; Peace in Guatemala? The story of San Lucas Tolimán; From apartheid to democracy: the economic dimensions of demilitarizing South African society; Do military expenditures create net employment? the case of US military-nuclear production sites. The Economic Cost of War and its Aftermath: The Sudan: the cost of the second civil war (1983-1993); That splendid little wa: the costs of the Spanish-American war; Estimates of the economic cost of armed conflict: the Iran-Iraq war and the Sri Lankan civil war; Research note: costing the direct health burden of political violence in developing countries. Securing Security: War and peace from a perspective of international public economics; A world treasury; Policies for peace: an analysis of the causes of military expenditures and the means to disarmament; Creating global security: Japan as a potential catalyst.