The Economics of War: Militarization and Growth in an AK Economy

Arpan Chakraborty

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Abstract: This paper analyzes the macroeconomic consequences of military spending and militarization within a dynamic growth framework. Building on a Keynesian goods-market model, we examine how the allocation of government expenditure between civilian and military sectors affects capital accumulation and technological progress. Military spending generates opposing effects: it stimulates aggregate demand and may support innovation through defense-related research, but it also crowds out civilian investment and creates structural rigidities. We formalize these mechanisms in a stylized endogenous-growth model in which productivity depends on the degree of militarization, producing a non-linear relationship between the military burden and long-run growth. Calibrated simulations show that moderate levels of military spending can temporarily support growth, whereas excessive militarization reduces long-run development. We further illustrate the asymmetric growth costs of conflict using a simple two-country war simulation between an advanced economy and a sanctioned middle-income economy.

Date: 2026-03
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