The purpose of this research project is to assess the economic effects of coordinating European joint security and defence expenditures and the impact on economic growth and innovation capability. Given its broad mission, especially with respect to the establishment of a common defence, the mentioned objective will be disaggregated in sub-categories for the sake of simplicity, brevity and analytical clarity. Defence and security are public goods; therefore, the first aim of this research is to reflect upon and define public goods along the following questions:

• What are the main characteristics of markets for public goods?
• Under what conditions, public investment in public goods fosters economic growth and technological innovation?
• What are the challenges for the EU as primary investors in the market for defence?
• Can existing best practices related to specific defence sectors, such as networks, logistics, administration, be applied to capital and know-how intensive sectors?

Specifically, starting from case studies of government intervention in the military sector such as in the US, we aim to identify the sectors (for instance, logistics, satellites, cybernetic and drones just to mention some) where high capital concentration, economics of scale and shared standards had positive results and when, instead, they were ineffective. Once we have identified the conditions and sectors wherein both states’ and industries’ interests converged, then the second sub-aim is to map the European market for defence to identify:

• Its dimensions ▪ The characteristics of the main operators
• The different sectors of the defence market
• The geographical distribution of market operators across the European Union
• The size and qualities of the largest operators

The composition and the international dimension of the Boards of the largest operators Once we have created a reliable database of European companies for defence, the third sub-aim of this research project would be to analyse actors at company-level. We will select companies from different sectors with better economic performance and mainly involved in innovation. We will thus analyze:

• How their investments affected their performance.
• How their performance has benefited from EU initiatives, such as the European Defence Fund.
• Where some of their developed technologies have found applications in sectors other then defence.