Economic theory predicts that military conscription is associated with static inefficiencies as well as with dynamic distortions of the accumulation of human and physical capital. Relative to an economy with an all-volunteer force, output levels and growth rates should be lower in countries that rely on a military draft to recruit their army personnel. For OECD countries, we show that military conscription indeed has a statistically significantly negative impact on economic performance.
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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number
2022.
Find related papers by JEL classification: H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General H57 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Procurement J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply C68 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods and Programming - - - Computable General Equilibrium Models
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Morten I. Lau & Panu Poutvaara & Andreas Wagener, 2004.
"Dynamic Costs of the Draft,"
German Economic Review,
Blackwell Publishing, vol. 5(4), pages 381-406, November.
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