This Handbook brings together contributions from leading scholars who take an economic perspective to study peace and conflict. Some chapters are largely empirical, exploring the correlates and quantifying the costs of conflict. Others are more theoretical, examining the mechanisms that lead to war or are more conducive to peace.

This work addresses new directions in research on the economic theory of conflict, the cost of war, and the benefits of peace. A collection of 17 papers drawing on contributors from all continents, the volume is divided into four sections. The first discusses novel ways to think about the economics of conflict and peace from theory perspectives. These include discussions of conflict from the perspectives of standard neoclassical analysis and economic geography. An especially interesting paper in this section addresses conflict in the context of the emerging theory of international public finance. A second section deals with military expenditures, economic/human development and economic growth in the US and developing nations of Asia and Africa. The volume enters new territory in sections three and four. Section three contains a set of papers on the economic cost of war and war’s aftermath, significantly expanding economists’ rather modest efforts to date. Section four is concerned with how the concepts of economics might be operationalized and institutionalized to foster security.

Provides comprehensive, up-to-date coverage of the key themes and principles of conflict economics.

The Handbook on the Economics of Conflict conveys how economics can contribute to the understanding of conflict in its various dimensions embracing world wars, regional conflicts, terrorism and the role of peacekeeping in conflict prevention. The economics of conflict is a relatively new branch of the discipline of economics. Conflict provides opportunities for applying game theory involving strategic behaviour, interactions and interdependence betweenadversaries. The Handbook demonstrates that conflict and its prevention is costly; it considers new dimensions such as ethnic cleansing, destructive power, terrorism, corruption, the impact of new technology, peacekeeping, the role of economists in defence ministries and the use of privatecontractors in conflict.

Presents the research on economic factors affecting peace and war. This title includes theoretical perspectives on the economic foundations of peace, violence and war within countries, connections between international trade and inter-state conflict, and the role of legal/institutional factors in international and internal conflict.

This collection of essays questions the adequacy of explaining today's internal armed conflicts purely in terms of economic factors and re-establishes the importance of identity and grievances in creating and sustaining such wars. Countries studied include Lebanon, Angola, Colombia and Afghanistan.

Conflict economics contributes to an understanding of violent conflict in two important ways. First, it applies economic analysis to diverse conflict activities such as war, arms races, and terrorism, showing how they can be understood as purposeful choices responsive to underlying incentives. Second, it treats appropriation as a fundamental economic activity, joining production and exchange as a means of wealth acquisition. Drawing on a half-century of scholarship, this book presents a primer on the key themes and principles of conflict economics. Although much work in the field is abstract, the book is made accessible to a broad audience of scholars, students and policymakers by relying on historical data, relatively simple graphs and intuitive narratives. In exploring the interdependence of economics and conflict, the book presents current perspectives of conflict economics in novel ways and offers new insights into economic aspects of violence.