Steven Davis

"War in Iraq versus Containment"

Friday, Feb. 2, 2007
Noon
Mershon Center for International Security Studies
1501 Neil Ave.

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Prior to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the United States, Britain, and their allies pursued a policy of containment authorized by the United Nations Security Council. Major elements of the policy included economic sanctions, disarmament requirements, weapons inspections, northern and southern no-fly zones, and maritime interdiction to enforce trade restrictions. Continued containment was the leading option to war and forcible regime change.

In this lecture, Steven Davis analyzes two policy options in Iraq -- war versus containment -- with attention to three questions:
• In terms of military resources and expenditures for humanitarian assistance and reconstruction, is war more or less costly for the United States than a policy of continued containment?
• Compared to war and forcible regime change, would a continuation of the containment policy have saved Iraqi lives?
• Is war likely to bring about an improvement or deterioration in the economic well-being of Iraqis?

Steven Davis is William H. Abbott Professor of International Business and Economics at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. His research specializations include employment outcomes, labor market flows, the structure of wages and earnings, tax effects on work activity, demand for risky assets, and product pricing and design.

Davis is the author of Job Creation and Destruction (with J. Haltiwanger and S. Schuh, MIT Press, 1996); "Entry, Pricing and Product Design in an Initially Monopolized Market," Journal of Political Economy (with K. Murphy and R. Topel, 2004); "Wage-Setting Institutions as Industrial Policy," Labour Economics (with M. Henrekson, 2005); "The Flow Approach to Labor Markets: New Data Sources, Micro-Macro Linkages, and the Recent Downturn" (with R.J. Faberman and J. Haltiwanger, 2005); and "Electricity Pricing to U.S. Manufacturing Plants, 1963-2000" (2005).

Davis has a bachelor's degree from Portland State University, and master's and Ph.D. from Brown University, all in economics.

This lecture is based on a paper by Davis, Kevin M. Murphy, and Robert H. Topel, all of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Steven Davis
William H. Abbott Professor of International Business and Economics
University of Chicago Graduate School of Business