We examine the practice of military conscription around the world from the perspective of two standard theories, and a new one, which emphasizes the fixed cost of introducing and administering the draft as a deterrent to its use. We find that, holding the relative size of the military constant, higher population countries are more likely to use the draft. We also find that French legal origin countries, which we see as facing lower fixed and variable administrative costs, are more likely to draft than are common law countries. Conscription does not seem to be influenced by democracy, and is influenced by the deadweight costs of taxation only in countries with very large militaries. The results suggest that fixed costs of introducing and administering new regulations may be an important determinant of their use.
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number
10558.
Length: Date of creation: Jun 2004 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10558
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Simeon Djankov & Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silane & Andrei Shleifer & Juan Botero, 2003.
"The Regulation of Labor,"
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Other versions:
Kevin Murphy & Andrei Shleifer, 2004.
"Persuasion in Politics,"
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Other versions:
Kevin M. Murphy & Andrei Shleifer, 2004.
"Persuasion in Politics,"
American Economic Review,
American Economic Association, vol. 94(2), pages 435-439, May.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Evgeny Yakovlev & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, 2007.
"Deregulation of Business,"
Working Papers
w0097, Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR).
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