While many observers talk about the economic stimulus derived from wartime expenditures and the character-building aspects of the military, most economists see war as a definite burden to participants, and potentially third parties as well. War’s direct costs include the involved states’ expenditures, the materiel destroyed or damaged, and the social costs of lives lost. While acknowledging these costs, economists have also long recognized the additional and detrimental impacts that war has on the economic lives of its participants and of others.
