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Defense R&D: Effects on Economic Growth and Social Welfare

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  • Chu, Angus C.
  • Lai, Ching-Chong

Abstract

In the US, defense R&D share of GDP has decreased significantly since 1960. To analyze the implications on economic growth and welfare, we develop an R&D-based growth model that features the commonly discussed crowding-out and spillover effects of defense R&D on civilian R&D. The model also captures the important effects of defense technology on (a) national security and (b) aggregate productivity via the spin-off effect resembling consumption public goods and productive public goods respectively. In this framework, economic growth is driven by market-based civilian R&D as in standard R&D growth models and government-financed public goods (i.e. defense R&D) as in Barro (1990). We find that defense R&D has an inverted-U-shape effect on growth, and the growth-maximizing level of defense R&D is increasing in the spillover effect and in the spin-off effect. Also, there is a welfare-maximizing level of defense R&D that is increasing in the security effect of national defense, and there exists a critical degree of this security effect below (above) which the welfare-maximizing level of defense R&D is below (above) the growth-maximizing level.

Suggested Citation

  • Chu, Angus C. & Lai, Ching-Chong, 2009. "Defense R&D: Effects on Economic Growth and Social Welfare," MPRA Paper 16325, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:16325
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    2. Antonio Martínez González & Nuria Rueda López, 2013. "A Productivity And Efficiency Analysis Of The Security And Defence Technological And Industrial Base In Spain," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2), pages 147-171, April.
    3. Iwaisako, Tatsuro, 2013. "Welfare effects of patent protection and productive public services: Why do developing countries prefer weaker patent protection?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 118(3), pages 478-481.
    4. Bo Kyeong Lee & So Young Sohn, 2017. "Exploring the effect of dual use on the value of military technology patents based on the renewal decision," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(3), pages 1203-1227, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    defense R&D; economic growth; public goods; social welfare;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy
    • H56 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - National Security and War

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