This chapter provides a survey of research on the defense industrial base (DIB) focusing on the advanced industrial capitalist economies. It starts by looking at the problems of definition and measurement and how these have been dealt with in practice. This is followed by an overview of the...

This chapter defines defense economics and indicates how it differs from other subfields of economics. The nature and topics of defense economics are presented. A brief history of the field is also reviewed. The current importance of defense economics in the post-cold war era is discussed....

We estimate Costa Rica’s peace dividend following the end of the civil war and the army’s abolition in 1949 with synthetic control. The country’s average per capita GDP growth increased from 1.42% to 2.28% between 1950-2010, relative to a counterfactual Costa Rica that did not take this...