Optimal growth under military threat

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1024269032000110513

National Defense is a public good that requires resources for its production and its availability affects the economic behavior of private agents. A major policy problem of the government is to find an optimal allocation of resources between private use and national defense. It is shown that, in a simple optimal growth framework, a government's solution may not be the one that satisfies the military authority's objective. Attention is drawn to the need of cooperation between these two bodies and to the importance of the transparency of military expenditures in reaching a compromise that satisfies the public.