When evaluating Israel’s high-tech capabilities and impressive economic achievements since inception, it is difficult not to recognize the important role played by defense and military developments. In particular, defense-related R&D had significant impacts on, as much as it was aided by, Israel’s industrial sector, higher educational system in science and engineering, research community, and the composition of its work force. However, a comprehensive empirical evaluation of the economic impacts of defense-related R&D in Israel is still missing.
Such an evaluation could contribute to a better resource allocation and distribution of research activities among government agencies, academy and the thriving private high-tech sector. This documents reviews some salient results in the literature about the links between defense-R&D and economic performance, and lists some unique characteristics of the Israeli economy that might affect the validity of this results for Israel. Specific research questions regarding the economic impact of defense R&D in Israel, and the kind of data needed to analyze them, is provided.
