On the Growth and Welfare Effects of Defense R&D

Angus Chu and Ching-chong Lai

No 09-A008, IEAS Working Paper : academic research from Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

Abstract: In the US, defense R&D share of GDP has decreased significantly since 1960. To analyze the implications on growth and welfare, we develop an R&D-based growth model that features the crowding-out and spillover effects of defense R&D on civilian R&D. The model also captures the effects of defense technology on (i) national security resembling consumption-type public goods and (ii) aggregate productivity via the spin-off effect resembling productive public goods. In this framework, economic growth is driven by market-based civilian R&D as in standard R&D-based growth models and government-financed public goods (i.e., defense R&D) as in Barro (1990). We find that defense R&D has an inverted-U effect on growth, and the growth-maximizing level of defense R&D is increasing in the spillover and spin-off effects. As for the welfare-maximizing level of defense R&D, it is increasing in the security-enhancing effect of defense technology, and there exists a critical degree of this security-enhancing effect below (above) which the welfare-maximizing level is below (above) the growth-maximizing level.

Keywords: defense R&D; public goods; economic growth; social welfare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H41 H56 O38 O40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2009-07, Revised 2009-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fdg and nep-ino
Note: Primitive title: Defense R&D: Effects on Economic Growth and Social Welfare
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: On the Growth and Welfare Effects of Defense R&D (2012)
Working Paper: Defense R&D: Effects on Economic Growth and Social Welfare (2009)
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