Military Spending Composition and Economic Growth

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Jordan Becker ◽  
J Paul Dunne

In this chapter, Haq outlines his optimistic outlook for global world order. For him the end of the Cold War had opened up many more choices for the global community. For the first time global military spending was seen to be declining every year. He saw potential to reallocate ODA aid funds, which were previously tilted in favour of cold war allies. For Haq the challenge is to link economic growth as the means to human development as an objective. He stresses on the need to reform institutions of global governance to translate globalization into opportunities for people.


2008 ◽  
pp. 142-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Kentor ◽  
Edward Kick

After the “peace bonus” era, global military expenditures have escalated sharply despite some worldwide declines in military personnel. Theories on the economic impacts of the military institution and escalated military spending greatly differ and include arguments that they either improve domestic economic performance or crowd out growth-inducing processes. Empirical findings on this matter are inconclusive, in part due to a failure to disentangle the various dimensions of military expenditures. We further suggest that modern sociology's relative inattention to such issues has contributed to these shortcomings. We explore a new dimension of military spending that clarifies this issue—military expenditures per soldier —which captures the capital intensiveness of a country’s military organization. Our cross-national panel regression and causal analyses of developed and less developed countries from 1990 to 2003 show that military expenditures per soldier inhibit the growth of per capita GDP, net of control variables, with the most pronounced effects in least developed countries. These expenditures inhibit national development in part by slowing the expansion of the labor force. Labor-intensive militaries may provide a pathway for upward mobility, but comparatively capital-intensive military organizations limit entry opportunities for unskilled and under- or unemployed people. Deep investments in military hardware also reduce the investment capital available for more economically productive opportunities. We also find that arms imports have a positive effect on economic growth, but only in less developed countries.


Author(s):  
Saptarshi Chakraborty

Some countries spend a relatively large percentage of GDP on their militaries in order to preserve or secure their status as global powers. Others do so because they are ruled by military governments or aggressive regimes that pose a military threat to their neighbors or their own populations. It is debatable whether there is a causal relationship between military spending and economic growth in the economy. It is again a policy debate how much to allocate funds for civilian and how much for military expenditure. Under these puzzling results of the impact of military expenditure on economic growth which is frequently found to be non-significant or negative, yet most countries spend a large fraction of their GDP on defense and the military. The chapter tries to investigate the relationship between military spending and economic growth in India. It also sees whether external threats, corruption, and other relevant controls have any causal effect. This chapter obtains that additional expenditure on Indian military in the presence of additional threat is significantly detrimental to growth implying that India cannot afford to fight or demonstrate power at the cost of its development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 5053 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ran Tao ◽  
Oana Ramona Glonț ◽  
Zheng-Zheng Li ◽  
Oana Ramona Lobonț ◽  
Adina Alexandra Guzun

Military spending and sustainable economic development have been widely discussed in recent decades. Especially in Romania, the defense budget is valued at $4.8 billion, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.57%. It is also expected to reach $7.6 billion in 2023, according to a report by Strategic Defense Intelligence. There is no consensus in current research and less attention is paid to Eastern European countries. Considering the significant increase in military spending in Romania in recent years, as well as the occurrence of political events, this paper focuses on the dynamic causal relationship between military spending and sustainable economic growth in Romania. The bootstrap rolling window causality test takes into account the structural changes, and therefore, provides more convincing results. The results indicate negative effects of military expenditure on sustainable economic growth between 1996–1999 and 2002–2004. It can be attributed to the crowding-out effect of public expenditure on private investment. The positive effect between the two variables analyzed is noticed with the accession of Romania to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Conversely, it is found that economic growth does not have a significant effect on military spending in Romania. Policymakers should guard against the crowding out of private consumption and investment due to excessive military spending and ensure to increase military expenditure on the premise of sustainable economic development.


2000 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-571 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Batchelor ◽  
J. Paul Dunne ◽  
David S. Saal

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Reza Farzanegan

Author(s):  
Ahmet Fatih Aydemir ◽  
Dilek Özdemir ◽  
Ömer Selçuk Emsen

The effects of the military expenditure on the economic growth and consequently on the employment has been the primary topic of the discussing in the literature of economics. Considering that the military expenditures generally emerge as a sub-item of the public spending, it has been asserted by the liberal approach that the principle of the non-productiveness of the public sector would be even more applicable in the military expenditures. None the less, using the military spending as a tool to lead an economy that feature underemployment constitutes the positive aspect of the views to the military expenditure and this is also the case of the prediction of the Keynesian economy. In this study, the effects of the military expenditure on the unemployment, which is a reflection of the effects of the economic growth, are analyzed as the subject matter. The findings revealed that the military spending has positive effects on the unemployment in some G20 states while it also has negative effects in some and has neutral effects in others. In addition, it is further indicated that the positive effects are experienced in relatively advanced economies, the negative effects emerge in relatively less developed economies, and the countries with abundant natural resources experience neutral effects.


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