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War and Economics

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Abstract

War has always intrigued economic thinkers: how economic interdependence affects the likelihood of conflict, the costs and benefits of aggression, how to fight a successful war and achieve a stable peace. Many prominent early economists had useful things to say, for example Smith, J.B. Clark, Pigou, Veblen and J.M. Keynes. Economists came into their element in the Second World War and the Cold War; welcomed into government, they distinguished themselves as macroeconomists, microeconomists, broad-based advisers, public administrators, and public figures. By the 1990s economists concerned with war and peace had established their own subdiscipline, with journals, textbooks and college courses.

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Goodwin, C.D. (2018). War and Economics. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2024

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