Military draft and economic growth in oecd countries

authored by

Katarina Keller, Panu Poutvaara, Andreas Wagener

Abstract

Economic theory predicts that military conscription is associated with static inefficiencies as well as with dynamic distortions of the accumulation of human and physical capital. Relative to an economy with an all-volunteer force, output levels and growth rates should be lower in countries that rely on a military draft to recruit their army personnel. For OECD countries, we show that military conscription indeed has a statistically significantly negative impact on economic performance.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Economic Policy

External Organisation(s)

Susquehanna University
University of Helsinki

Type

Article

Journal

Defence and peace economics

Volume

20

Pages

373-393

No. of pages

21

ISSN

1024-2694

Publication date

10.2009

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Social Sciences (miscellaneous), Economics and Econometrics

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1080/10242690802332994 (Access: Closed)
https://econpapers.repec.org/paper/izaizadps/dp2022.htm (Access: Open)