THE THEORY OF COLLECTIVE ACTION AND NATO DEFENSE BURDENS - NEW EMPIRICAL TESTS

Burden sharing has been a contentious topic from the early years of th e North Atlantic alliance. Since 1966, it has also been a recurring te st of the theory of collective action. Here we report the results of n ew tests of Mancur Olson's theory and its extension, the joint-product model, proposed by Todd Sandler et al. Our analyses of pooled cross-s ectional and time-series data for fifteen NATO allies, 1950-86, offers the first full, independent test of the joint-product model. While ou r analyses demonstrate the theoretical value of Sandler's model, they also indicate that Olson's original emphasis on the public nature of t he good supplied by the alliance remains valid. Some evidence regardin g the role of the United States suggests that NATO has been a uniquely privileged group.