Military expenditures and political regimes: Evidence from global data, 1963–2000

• Published in: Economic modelling 2015-01, Vol.44, p.68-79
• Main Authors: Töngür, Ünal, Hsu, Sara, Elveren, Adem Yavuz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Defense spending; Democracy; Dictatorship; Economic growth; Economic theory; Expenditures; Income inequality; Manycountries; Military; Military expenditure; Panel data; Political economy; Political regime; Political regimes; Studies
• ISSN: 0264-9993; 1873-6122
• DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2014.10.004

This paper examines the determinants of military expenditures with a special focus on political regimes for more than 130 countries for the period of 1963–2000 by employing a dynamic panel data analysis. The paper aims at contributing to the literature by utilizing a recently constructed political regime data set and controlling for income inequality, a key variable that has not received substantial attention in the context of political regimes, economic growth and military expenditures. Covering a large set of countries and an extended time period, the paper reveals further evidence on the linkage between democracy and military expenditures. Our results yield two crucial facts. First, social democratic political regimes have a tendency to spend less on armaments as a share of the national income; compared to social democracy, all other political regimes are likely to have higher military burdens, confirming previous findings of the negative relationship between level of democracy and military burden. Second, the analysis shows that a higher income inequality is associated with a higher military burden. •There exists a negative relationship between military burden and economic growth.•The negative relationship between level of democracy and military burden is confirmed.•Social democratic regimes have a tendency to spend less on armaments.•Higher income inequality causes higher military burden.