The past few decades have seen a rapid growth in research examining the long run determinants of modern day wealth disparities among nations. This strand of research has established that initially favourable biogeographic endowments such as moderate temperatures, land suitable for agriculture and proximity to trade routes explains a significant amount of variation in modern day economic development. However this literature is also left with a paradox – some regions of the world which were initially favoured (such as China, India or the Middle East) now lag behind others (such as Europe) which were not. Many social scientists attribute this to the relative prevalence of warfare. In the long run war, it is argued, stimulates economic development through a number of channels – fostering strong, capable states, pro-social norms and technological innovation among other things. While this argument has been tested through qualitative case studies and within-region quantitative evidence, this paper represents the first attempt to test it using cross-national data from across the world. Combining a novel source of data on battle locations with fine-grained pre-existing data on biogeographic endowments and prior development, I find evidence that a more bellicose history is associated with greater levels of development today.

About the presenter:

Charles Miller received his PhD in political science from Duke University in 2013. His work centres on military conflict among other things. His work has been published in World Politics, the Journal of Peace Research, the European Journal of Political Research, Rationality and Society, the International Journal of Public Opinion Research and International Relations of the Asia-Pacific.