With the convergence of preferences for democracy and free markets in so many nations, the UN has a momentous opportunity to provide the infrastructure needed to attain international peace. Given that peace is a public good, its provision by the international community currently suffers from the...

By now there is a substantial literature in economics pioneered by George Stigler (1971) and refined by Sam Peltzman (1976) and Gary Becker (1985) that analyzes the role the state plays in redistributing wealth across different groups in society. This transfer of wealth can be effectuated...

The paper develops a model of the intertemporal allocation of consumption where the role of national security is in protecting the wealth of a country from an attack by an adversary. The model disaggregates weapon systems into those which reduce the likelihood of an attack and those which reduce...

At least since 1750 when Baron de Montesquieu declared peace is the natural effect of trade, a number of economists and political scientists espoused the notion that trade among nations leads to peace. Employing resources wisely to produce one commodity rather than employing them inefficiently...

Studying the determinants of international conflict, researchers have found a series of influential variables, but few have addressed the robustness of the results to changes in the definition of the dependent variable, conflict. The two main sources for operationalizing conflict in empirical...