The Economics of Conflict and Peace

A foundational primer on the field of conflict and peace economics, this Element details its intellectual history, highlights policy-relevant insights gained from contemporary theory and evidence, and addresses future research needs.

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Written for an audience of students, general readers, and economists alike, this Element is a primer on the field of the economics of conflict and peace. It offers a reasonably comprehensive, systematic, and detailed overview - even if in broad strokes - of the field's orthodox and heterodox history of thought and current theories and evidence. The authors view this Element as a baseline account on which to build a future, separate and more fully developed, work on the economics of peace, economic growth, and human development. Altogether, the Element contextualizes the field of conflict and peace economics, outlines its history of thought, highlights examples of current theoretical and empirical scholarship in the field, and maps trajectories for further research.