Military Spending and Innovation: Learning from 19th Century World Fair Exhibition Data

Alexander Danzer, Natalia Danzer and Carsten Feuerbaum

No 10347, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: We provide quantitative evidence on the relationship between military spending and innovation in the 19th century. Combining innovation data from world fairs and historical military data across Europe, we show that national military spending is associated with national innovation towards war logistics such as food processing, but less towards war technology such as guns. This pattern reflects differences in the historical markets for war supplies. European patent data of 1990-2015 suggest a long-term correlation between historical and contemporaneous innovation patterns.

Keywords: military spending; innovation; war logistics; food processing; military supply; 19th century (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H56 N43 O14 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro, nep-his and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Military spending and innovation: learning from 19th-century world fair exhibition data (2024)
Working Paper: Military Spending and Innovation: Learning from 19th Century World Fair Exhibition Data (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10347

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