Defense planning and fiscal strategy

Abstract

In this article, we consider the optimal fiscal strategy of a government interested in maximizing expected social welfare in the face of a potential future security threat. While the common wisdom is that countries facing security threats should seek to bolster their fiscal position in order to ‘save for a rainy day’, we find that the optimization of expected social welfare may require governments to run ‘precautionary’ fiscal deficits.

Notes

¹See Bohn (1990).