This paper studies the evolution of worldwide military spending during 1970-2018. It finds thatmilitary spending in relation to GDP is converging, but into three separate groups of countries. Inthe largest group, responsible for 90 percent of worldwide spending, outlays have remainedstubbornly...

While economic deprivation is an important determinant of civil conflict, it cannot completely explain the incentives for warfare. In irregular wars, for example, both incumbents and insurgents may employ various tactics to win the hearts and minds of civilians in order to muster territorial...

Using two sources of household data, we show that in response to psychological distress induced by terrorist attacks, households significantly reduce their trading activity and equity ownership, are less likely to enter the market, and increase the value of their savings accounts. We find that...

Emissions control cannot address the consequences of global warming for weather disasters until decades later. We model regional-level mitigation, which reduces aggregate disaster risks to capital stock in the interim. Unexpected disaster arrivals increase belief regarding the adverse...

Recent advances in political science and economics highlight the role of historical events in shaping contemporary political and economic outcomes. This article joins the growing literature by utilizing disaggregated data and mediation analysis to explore the causal mechanisms bridging ethnic...

This study complements existing literature by investigating how military expenditure can modulate the effect of terrorism externalities on tourism. The geographical and temporal scopes are 163 countries and the period 2010-2015. The empirical evidence is based on negative binomial regressions....

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused Governments to contemplate measures to override patents and other intellectual property rights (IPRs) in order to facilitate production and distribution of vaccines, treatments, diagnostics and medical devices. This paper discusses whether the COVID-19 pandemic...

We investigate how oil dependence affects the trade of weapons between countries. We argue that oil-dependent economies have incentives to transfer arms to oil-rich countries to reduce their risk of instability and, as a result, the chances of disruption in the oil industry. We employ gravity...

This study investigates the determinants of and persistence in access to weapons using a global sample of 163 countries for the period 2010 to 2015. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments (GMM). Hysteresis in access to weapons is consistently more apparent in countries...