Iraq's price tag: trying to calculate the costs of war.

• Author: Taylor, Jeff A.
• Position: Economists researches war finance in Iraq invasion - Brief article

IN A MARCH study for the American Enterprise Institute, three economists at the University of Chicago--Steven Davis, Kevin Murphy, and Robert Topel--attempt to calculate the cost of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. They conclude that those expenses are not dramatically different from the alternative: maintaining the pre-2003 no-fly zone over the country, coupled with the costs of economic sanctions.

The trio pegs the cost of war at $410 to $630 billion in 2003 dollars up through the end of January. Containing Saddam Hussein, they say, comes to between $350 and $700 billion. The researchers take direct government costs, such as the billions spent on military responses and reconstructions, and then add in indirect costs, such as the crippled Iraqi economy both post and pre-invasion. A significant portion of their argument rests...