Does military pressure boost fiscal capacity? Evidence from late-modern military revolutions in Europe and North America
研究了19世纪中期至今西方国家的军事革命对财政发展的影响，发现战争与财政扩张呈倒U型关系，且政治因素在解释这一过程中至关重要。
Warfare and military competition have been defined as important driving forces for the expansion of fiscal capacity during late-modern times. However, the empirical evidence remains inconclusive, and we still lack a historical narrative that explains how warfare has affected the evolution of late-modern fiscal systems. This article aims to fill this gap by analysing the effects of warfare on fiscal development in the light of the so-called Revolutions in Military Affairs that took place in Western countries since the mid-nineteenth century to the present. The results suggest that the interplay between warfare and fiscal expansion has followed an inverted “U-shape” pattern, in which changes in military tactics and technology have pushed public revenues up until the destructive power has passed the nuclear threshold level. Additionally, the results pose that politics is relevant to complete this war-led narrative.