Contenu du sommaire : Defence, Innovations and Growth

This article, which focuses on the macro-dynamic branches of defense economics, aims at showing that the mainstream literature – the neoclassical school or the methodologies closely related to it – devoted to the effects of military spending stumbles over worrying difficulties, by throwing light on its insuperable theoretical and empirical limitations. The authors' criticism applies to: demand-side and supply-side models (first part); formalizations with technological spin-off effects, externalities or public goods (second part); and simulation models, including the most recent ones with endogenous technical progress growth models (third part).JEL Codes: H56, O31, O32, O47, P43

The overall consensus in the macro literature is that military expenditure reduces economic growth, except for some exceptional circumstances and countries, if all inter-relationships are adequately accounted for. However, defence also has major spin-offs particularly for economies with a relatively large Defence Industrial Base, DIB (also known as the defence industrial and technological base) which could have potential positive externalities for the civilian sectors in terms of scientific innovation and technological progress. In this paper we concentrate on economic growth and its links with the defence sector. It makes reference to the Israeli economy and military with special emphasis on the military industrial complex.JEL Codes: E32, G38, P43

Technology has been playing a central role in defense spending or arms-producing countries since World War II. Although there has been no major threat or conflict since the 1990s, defense R&D absorbs a large share of military expenditures, as well as public R&D. This technology-centric paradigm results from uncertainties surrounding defense matters and the need to avoid strategic surprises. However, one can wonder whether such a paradigm is still adapted to today's defense needs. This is a trend strongly driven by the supply side: defense firms have developed a business model that cannot survive without launching new programs, hence a high level of defense R&D. This explains both an overinvestment in technology, resulting in the development of unaffordable technologies or unsustainable performance targets, and the technology-centric model that defense firms favor in side markets like security.JEL Codes: H56, H57, O32

Defense support is defined as all the means contributing to the readiness of military forces. The literature in defense economics presents very little analysis of defense support in its different forms. Neither space nor base locations have been deeply analyzed in that literature. This paper aims to bridge this gap by discussing and defining preliminary steps of a research agenda in order to connect defense and spatial economics in the case of defense support activities. This contribution discusses the on-going transformations and especially technological changes in the MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) of defense systems in the French army. With concepts from spatial economics, this paper aims at examining the geographic pattern of the defense system and new types of economic interconnections (e.g. outsourcing, Public Private Partnerships and “productive duality”) between military and civilian activities. This paper aims to answer to the following questions: What are the main trends in the evolution of defense support for modern defense platforms that embody increasing technology? What are the consequences of such trends for the defense system as a whole? Finally, considering both economic and spatial organizational innovations, how can the defense support system be optimized?JEL Codes: D61, H11, H56

This paper deals with the project of a merger between BAE systems and EADS, announced in September 2012 and finally cancelled one month later. It investigates the rationale of the merger project and the reasons that explain its collapse. Our first aim is to assess the importance - usually put forward in the literature - of the pre-merger phase in the success or the failure of a merger project. Our second aim is to put forward the specificities of mergers when defence firms are involved. Using a single case study methodology, we show that the economic rationality of the project was based on industrial complementaries, economic synergies and personal motives. We then investigate the many political divergences, specific to the defence industry, which emerged during the pre-merger phase. Finally, the paper draws on the implications of the failure of the merger project.JEL Codes: L10, L64, G34

This paper, mainly methodological in scope, aims at providing an estimation of the number of U.
S. military bases and strengths at a worldwide scale. After having given a short periodization of the expansion of the U.S. military bases network, the first part presents the official statistical data disseminated by the US Department of Defense. The second one provides a critical analysis of the main limitations of data, and suggests some methodological corrections.JEL Codes: E62, H56, P43

This article studies the U.
S. economy from an original point of view: that of the links existing between crisis and war. The first part analyzes the workings of the current crisis, considered to be a “systemic” one. The second part places the U.S. economy at the very heart of this crisis. The third part emphasizes the limitations of the anti-crisis policies that are being implemented, as well as the “currency war” issue. Then, the central focus moves towards U.S. warfare as a permanent feature. In a fifth part, the author examines the control exercised by finance capital on the military sector, including military-industrial complex and privately owned military companies. And finally, it examines how these links between crisis and war exacerbate the current capitalist contradictions.JEL Codes: E32, E62, G38, H56, P12, P43

This paper deals with the contradiction between the inherent accumulative socialized production of the scientific and technological knowledge and the privatization and commercialization of the results. The evolution of the technological knowledge is based on the humanity heritage from mythology and a great variety of disciplines such as art, craft, science, engineering as well as the collective efforts of artists, scientists, engineers, technicians and workers, that is called socialized knowledge production. The controversial issue on the justification of the strengthening the Intellectual Property (IP) protection legislation is considered to show that the aforementioned critical contradiction is underestimated by both sides of supporters and opponents of the IP regime.JEL Codes: L63, O31, O33, O34

This paper analyses the role of the French research tax credit (Crédit d'impôt recherche, CIR) in the French innovation policy mix by putting it into the international context. After comparing the French situation to other countries with two indicators – innovation performance and stimulating business R&D – and analysing the structure of CIR beneficiaries, we argue that under the current budget constraint, there is room of adjustment to reduce the cost of CIR and to increase its efficiency. Meanwhile, we suggest that further empirical studies will help to fully assess the impact of CIR within the French innovation policy mix.JEL Codes: O38, O32