# S9 Ep34: Making defence spending pay

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/voxtalks-economics-504930/s9-ep34-making-defence-spending-pay
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/voxtalks-economics-504930/s9-ep34-making-defence-spending-pay.md
Podcast: [VoxTalks Economics](https://stenobird.com/podcast/voxtalks-economics-504930)
Published: 2026-06-19T10:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://audioboom.com/posts/8918503
Audio file: https://audioboom.com/posts/8918503.mp3?modified=1781851051&sid=4966228&source=rss
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/voxtalks-economics-504930/episodes/s9-ep34-making-defence-spending-pay
Duration seconds: 1588

## Resource

Defence spending is rising whether voters like it or not. The UK has committed to 2.5% of national income and aims for nearer 3.5% over the next decade, £30bn a year for each percentage point. What does the country get back? Can defence spending be pro-growth? In this week's VoxTalk, John Van Reenen (LSE) argues that getting a return on investment based on innovation need not be left to luck. For example nuclear power, GPS and the internet all began as military projects. The spillovers can be planned for; the trick is to make defence spending innovation-rich, and make procurement work better. Traditional top-down procurement mostly produces lock-in: the same firms winning over and over. Van Reenen's study of a project at the US Air Force shows the difference: when it asked firms what they could build, rather than telling them what to make, the competitions brought in startups, generated more original patents, and spilled ideas into the civilian economy. The research behind this episode: Moretti, Enrico, Claudia Steinwender, and John Van Reenen. 2025. "The Intellectual Spoils of War? Defense R&D, Productivity, and International Spillovers." The Review of Economics and Statistics 107 (1). An ungated version is available as NBER Working Paper No. 26483 . Howell, Sabrina T., Jason Rathje, John Van Reenen, and Jun Wong. 2025. "Opening Up Military Innovation: Causal Effects of Reforms to US Defense Research." Journal of Political Economy 133 (11). An ungated version is available as NBER Working Paper No. 28700 . To cite this episode: Phillips, Tim, and John Van Reenen. 2026. “Making defence spending pay.” VoxTalks Economics (podcast). Assign this as extra listening. The citation above is formatted and ready for a reading list or VLE. About the guest John Van Reenen is th…

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## Transcript

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