Economic Rationality or Irrelevance of War?

Renata Allio ()
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Renata Allio: University of Turin

Chapter Chapter 6 in War in Economic Theories over Time, 2020, pp 133-169 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract NeoclassicalWar irrelevance of economists at the end of the 1800s chose the path of theoretical analysis and analysed the behaviourBehaviour of economic agents in an ordered peaceful situationSituation, setting aside phenomena that disturb the aim of general equilibriumEquilibrium general, including, obviously, among others, war. They considered that defence of the state was a problem of a political nature, independently of all the economic implications that war, caused for whatever motive, always brings. The second post-war period saw economists with mathematical training, even if they were interested neither in the causes leading to the war, nor in its consequences, applying Game theoryTheory Game to the study of military strategyStrategy military and economicsEconomy military/militarisation of too, thereby introducing war to areas to be studied by neoclassical economicsEconomic(s) neoclassical. They considered it a rational activity (R. AumannAumann, Robert John: “if it were not so, how could it be studied?”) within theoretical, logical, mathematical bounds, suitable for the study of any war from the Punic Wars to the World Wars. They calculated strategic gambits and suggested deterrents as the basic factor in avoiding new devastating conflicts. The School of Public Choice maintains that the choice of war can be rational and thinks that it would be more economical to entrust its conduct to private bodies.

Keywords: War as wrong economic choice; Rationality of war; Mathematical-economists; Deterrence; Game theory; Economic theory of conflicts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-39617-6_6

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