The state does not live by warfare alone: War and revenue in the long nineteenth century

Agustín Goenaga (), Oriol Sabaté () and Jan Teorell ()
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Agustín Goenaga: Lund University
Oriol Sabaté: University of Barcelona
Jan Teorell: Stockholm University

The Review of International Organizations, 2023, vol. 18, issue 2, No 6, 393-418

Abstract: Abstract Previous research shows that wars contributed to the expansion of state revenues in the Early Modern period and in the twentieth century. There are, however, few cross-national studies on the long nineteenth century. Using new unbalanced panel data on wars and public revenues from 1816 to 1913 for 27 American and European countries, this article provides new evidence that military conflicts very rarely triggered lasting increases in public revenues during those years. We argue that the uneven diffusion of military innovations reduced the probability that international wars would be sufficiently intense to push state actors to seek additional resources. Moreover, the distinction between international and civil wars was blurred by the opportunities for non-state actors to mobilize military forces comparable to those of the state. Therefore, only very intense international and civil wars had a lasting impact on state revenues, but such conflicts were extremely rare, both in Europe and the Americas.

Keywords: Fiscal capacity; Public revenues; Taxation; War; Europe; America; Nineteenth century (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H20 N4 N40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s11558-022-09477-x

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