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The Relationship Between Military Expenditures and Economic Freedom in the Middle East and North Africa Region

Year 2020, Volume: 4 Issue: 1, 63 - 76, 31.01.2020
https://doi.org/10.29023/alanyaakademik.649370

Abstract










The relationship between military
expenditures and economic growth has been widely studied in the literature. However,
there are no studies focusing on the relationship between military expenditures
and economic freedom in the literature. In countries with high levels of
economic freedom, democratic regime transitions are more comfortable.
Therefore, military expenditures are expected to decrease as potential internal
turmoil, and external threats will be reduced in countries with high economic
freedom. This study examines the relationship between military expenditures and
economic freedom in 13 MENA countries (Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Israel,
Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Turkey)
during the period 1996-2018 by using panel data analysis. It was found that
economic growth, tax burden, and trade freedom had a positive impact on
military expenditures. It was also concluded that property rights, monetary
freedom, government integrity, and investment freedom negatively affected
military expenditures. Besides, it is understood that there is a bidirectional
causal relationship between military expenditures and tax burden, property
rights, monetary freedom, government integrity, investment freedom, and
business freedom. On the other hand, there is a unidirectional causality
relationship from economic growth to military expenditures and from military
expenditures to trade freedom.

References

  • ABDELFATTAH, Y. M., ABU-QARN, A. S., DUNNE J. P., and ZAHER S. (2014). “The Demand for Military Spending in Egypt.” Defence and Peace Economics, 25 (3): 231–245.
  • ACEMOGLU, D., TICCHI, D., and VINDIGNI, A. (2010). “A Theory of Military Dictatorships”. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2 (1): 1–42.
  • ALBALATE, D., BEL, G., and ELIAS, F. (2012). “Institutional Determinants of Military Spending”. Journal of Comparative Economics, 40: 279–290.
  • ALPTEKIN, A., and P. L. LEVINE. (2012). “Military Expenditure and Economic Growth: A Meta-Analysis”. European Journal of Political Economy, 28 (4): 636–650.
  • BAI, J and NG, S. (2004). “A Panic Attack on Unit Roots and Cointegration”. Econometrica, 72(4): 1127-1177.
  • BALIGA, S., LUCCA, D. O., and SJOSTROM, T. (2011). “Domestic political survival and international conflict: is democracy good for peace?”. Review of Economic Studies, 78, 458–486.
  • BLUM, J. (2018). “Defense Burden and the Effect of Democracy:Evidence from a Spatial Panel Analysis”. Defence and Peace Economics, 29:6, 614-641.
  • BOVE, V., and J. BRAUNER. (2016). “The Demand for Military Expenditure in Authoritarian Regimes”. Defence and Peace Economics, 27 (5): 609–625.
  • BRAUNER, J. (2015). “Military Spending and Democracy”. Defence and Peace Economics, 26 (4): 409–423.
  • BREUSCH, T., and PAGAN, A. (1980). “The Lagrange Multiplier Test and Its Applications to Model Specification in Econometrics”. Review of Economic Studies, 47: 239-253.
  • COLLIER, P., and HOEFFLER, A. (2007). “Unintended consequences: does aid promote arms races?”. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 69(1), 1-27.
  • DIZAJI, S. F. (2014). “The Effects of Oil Shocks on Government Expenditures and Government Revenues Nexus (With an Application to Iran’s Sanctions).” Economic Modelling, 40: 299–313.
  • DOYLE, M. W. (1986). “Liberalism and World Politics”. American Political Science Review, 80 (4): 1151–1169.
  • DRISCOLL, J. C, and KRAAY, A. C. (1998). “Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimation with Spatially Dependent Panel Data”. Review of Economics and Statistics, 80: 549-560.
  • DUMITRESCU, E. I., and HURLIN, C. (2012). “Testing for Granger Non-Causality in Heterogeneous Panels”. Economic Modelling, 29(4): 1450-1460.
  • DUNNE, J. P., and PERLO-FREEMAN, S. (2003). “The Demand for Military Spending in Developing Countries”. International Review of Applied Economics, 17 (1): 23–48.
  • DUNNE, J. P., and TIAN, N. (2013). “Military expenditure and economic growth: A survey”. The Economics of Peace and Security Journal, 8(1):5-11.
  • DUNNE, J. P., PERLO-FREEMAN, S., and SMITH. R. P. (2008). “The Demand for Military Spending in Developing Countries: Hostility versus Capability”. Defence and Peace Economics, 19 (4): 293–302.
  • DUNNE, J. P., PERLO-FREEMAN, S., and SMITH. R. P. (2011). “Determining Military Expenditures: Dynamics, Spillovers and Heterogeneity in Panel Data”. Paper Prepared for the Economic Society South Africa Conference at the University of Stellenbosch, 1-21.
  • FARZANEGAN, M. R. (2014). “Military Spending and Economic Growth: The Case of Iran”. Defence and Peace Economics, 25 (3): 247–269.
  • FORDHAM, B. O., and WALKER, T. C. (2005). “Kantian liberalism, regime type, and military resource allocation: Do democracies spend less?”. International Studies Quarterly, 49(1), 141-157.
  • FREEDOM HOUSE, (2019). “Freedom in the World Countries”, https://freedomhouse.org/report/countries-world-freedom-2019.
  • GOLDSMITH, B. E. (2007). “Arms Racing in ‘Space’: Spatial Modelling ofMilitary Spending around the World”. Australian Journal of Political Science, 42:3, 419-440.
  • GYLFASON, T., MARTINEZ-ZARZOSO, I., and WIJKMAN P.M. (2015.) “Can free trade help convert the ‘Arab Spring’ into permanent peace and democracy?”. Defence and Peace Economics, 26:3, 247-270.
  • HF, Heritage Foundation, 2019, Economic Freedom Index.
  • JAMES, P., SOLBERG, E., and WOLFSON, M. (1999). “An identified systemic model of the democracy peace nexus”. Defence and Peace Economics, 10: 1-38.
  • KIM, H. C., KIM, H. M., and LEE, J. (2013). “The Post-Coup Military Spending Question Revisited, 1960–2000”. International Interactions, 39 (3): 367–385.
  • KIMENYI, M. S., and MBAKU, J. M. (1995). “Rents, military elites, and political democracy”. European Journal of Political Economy, 11(4), 699-708.
  • LEBOVIC, J. H. (2001). “Spending Priorities and Democratic Rule in Latin America.” Journal of Peace Research, 45 (4): 427–452.
  • LSKAVYAN, V. (2011). “Democracy levels and the income–military expenditure relationship”, Applied Economics Letters, 18:15, 1485-1489.
  • MULLIGAN, C., GIL, R. and SALA-I-MARTİN, X. (2004). “Do democracies have different public policies than nondemocracies?”. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 18, 51–74.
  • NORDHAUS, W., ONEAL, J. R., and RUSSETT, B. (2009). “The Effects of the security environment on military expenditures: Pooled analyses of 165 Countries, 1950-2000”. Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1707, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, revised Oct 2009.
  • NORDHAUS, W., ONEAL, J. R., and RUSSETT, B. (2012). “The Effects of the International Security Environment on National Military Expenditures: A Multicountry Study.” International Organization 66 (3): 491–513.
  • PESARAN, M. H. (2004). “General Diagnostic Tests for Cross Section Dependence in Panels.” The University of Cambridge, Faculty of Economics, Cambridge WP 0435 in Economics, 1-43.
  • PESARAN, M. H., ULLAH, A., and YAMAGATA, T. (2008). “A Bias-Adjusted LM Test of Error Cross-Section Independence”. Econometrics Journal, 11: 105-127.
  • ROSH, R. M. (1988). “Third World Militarization: Security Webs and the States They Ensnare”. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 32 (4): 671–698.
  • ROTA, M. (2011). “Military Burden and the Democracy Puzzle.” MPRA Paper No. 35254, 1-31.
  • ROTA, M. (2016). “Military spending, fiscal capacity, and the democracy puzzle”. Explorations in Economic History, 60, 41-51.
  • RUSSETT, B. M. (1993). Grasping the Democratic Peace: Principles for a Post-cold War World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • SEIGLIE, C. (2016). “Openness of the Economy, Terms of Trade, and Arms”. Southern Economic Journal, 82(3): 748-759.
  • SIPRI. (2019). “SIPRI Military Expenditure Database”. Solna: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
  • SOLARIN, S. A. (2018). “Determinants of Military Expenditure and the Role of Globalisation in a Cross-Country Analysis”, Defence and Peace Economics, 29:7, 853-870.
  • TATOGLU, F. Y. (2017). Panel Zaman Serileri Analizi, Beta Yayınevi, İstanbul.
  • TAYLOR, M. P., and SARNO, L. (1998). “The Behaviour of Real Exchange Rates During the Post-Bretton Words Period”. Journal of Internal Economics, 46(2): 281-312.
  • TONGUR, U., HSU, S., and ELVEREN, A. Y. (2015). “Military Expenditures and Political Regimes: Evidence from Global Data, 1963– 2000”. Economic Modelling, 44 (C): 68–79.
  • WALL, H. (1996). “Is a military really a luxury good? An international panel study of LDCs”. Applied Economics, 28: 41–4.
  • WB, World Bank, 2019 World Development Indicators.
  • YILDIRIM, J., and SEZGIN, S. (2005). “Democracy and Military Expenditure: Cross-Country Evidence”. Transition Studies Review, 12 (1): 93–100.

The Relationship between Military Expenditures and Economic Freedom in the Middle East and North Africa Region

Year 2020, Volume: 4 Issue: 1, 63 - 76, 31.01.2020
https://doi.org/10.29023/alanyaakademik.649370

Abstract

.The relationship between military expenditures and economic growth has been widely studied in the literature. However, there are no studies focusing on the relationship between military expenditures and economic freedom in the literature. In countries with high levels of economic freedom, democratic regime transitions are more comfortable. Therefore, military expenditures are expected to decrease as potential internal turmoil, and external threats will be reduced in countries with high economic freedom. This study examines the relationship between military expenditures and economic freedom in 13 MENA countries (Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Turkey) during the period 1996-2018 by using panel data analysis. It was found that economic growth, tax burden, and trade freedom had a positive impact on military expenditures. It was also concluded that property rights, monetary freedom, government integrity, and investment freedom negatively affected military expenditures. Besides, it is understood that there is a bidirectional causal relationship between military expenditures and tax burden, property rights, monetary freedom, government integrity, investment freedom, and business freedom. On the other hand, there is a unidirectional causality relationship from economic growth to military expenditures and from military expenditures to trade freedom.

References

  • ABDELFATTAH, Y. M., ABU-QARN, A. S., DUNNE J. P., and ZAHER S. (2014). “The Demand for Military Spending in Egypt.” Defence and Peace Economics, 25 (3): 231–245.
  • ACEMOGLU, D., TICCHI, D., and VINDIGNI, A. (2010). “A Theory of Military Dictatorships”. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2 (1): 1–42.
  • ALBALATE, D., BEL, G., and ELIAS, F. (2012). “Institutional Determinants of Military Spending”. Journal of Comparative Economics, 40: 279–290.
  • ALPTEKIN, A., and P. L. LEVINE. (2012). “Military Expenditure and Economic Growth: A Meta-Analysis”. European Journal of Political Economy, 28 (4): 636–650.
  • BAI, J and NG, S. (2004). “A Panic Attack on Unit Roots and Cointegration”. Econometrica, 72(4): 1127-1177.
  • BALIGA, S., LUCCA, D. O., and SJOSTROM, T. (2011). “Domestic political survival and international conflict: is democracy good for peace?”. Review of Economic Studies, 78, 458–486.
  • BLUM, J. (2018). “Defense Burden and the Effect of Democracy:Evidence from a Spatial Panel Analysis”. Defence and Peace Economics, 29:6, 614-641.
  • BOVE, V., and J. BRAUNER. (2016). “The Demand for Military Expenditure in Authoritarian Regimes”. Defence and Peace Economics, 27 (5): 609–625.
  • BRAUNER, J. (2015). “Military Spending and Democracy”. Defence and Peace Economics, 26 (4): 409–423.
  • BREUSCH, T., and PAGAN, A. (1980). “The Lagrange Multiplier Test and Its Applications to Model Specification in Econometrics”. Review of Economic Studies, 47: 239-253.
  • COLLIER, P., and HOEFFLER, A. (2007). “Unintended consequences: does aid promote arms races?”. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 69(1), 1-27.
  • DIZAJI, S. F. (2014). “The Effects of Oil Shocks on Government Expenditures and Government Revenues Nexus (With an Application to Iran’s Sanctions).” Economic Modelling, 40: 299–313.
  • DOYLE, M. W. (1986). “Liberalism and World Politics”. American Political Science Review, 80 (4): 1151–1169.
  • DRISCOLL, J. C, and KRAAY, A. C. (1998). “Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimation with Spatially Dependent Panel Data”. Review of Economics and Statistics, 80: 549-560.
  • DUMITRESCU, E. I., and HURLIN, C. (2012). “Testing for Granger Non-Causality in Heterogeneous Panels”. Economic Modelling, 29(4): 1450-1460.
  • DUNNE, J. P., and PERLO-FREEMAN, S. (2003). “The Demand for Military Spending in Developing Countries”. International Review of Applied Economics, 17 (1): 23–48.
  • DUNNE, J. P., and TIAN, N. (2013). “Military expenditure and economic growth: A survey”. The Economics of Peace and Security Journal, 8(1):5-11.
  • DUNNE, J. P., PERLO-FREEMAN, S., and SMITH. R. P. (2008). “The Demand for Military Spending in Developing Countries: Hostility versus Capability”. Defence and Peace Economics, 19 (4): 293–302.
  • DUNNE, J. P., PERLO-FREEMAN, S., and SMITH. R. P. (2011). “Determining Military Expenditures: Dynamics, Spillovers and Heterogeneity in Panel Data”. Paper Prepared for the Economic Society South Africa Conference at the University of Stellenbosch, 1-21.
  • FARZANEGAN, M. R. (2014). “Military Spending and Economic Growth: The Case of Iran”. Defence and Peace Economics, 25 (3): 247–269.
  • FORDHAM, B. O., and WALKER, T. C. (2005). “Kantian liberalism, regime type, and military resource allocation: Do democracies spend less?”. International Studies Quarterly, 49(1), 141-157.
  • FREEDOM HOUSE, (2019). “Freedom in the World Countries”, https://freedomhouse.org/report/countries-world-freedom-2019.
  • GOLDSMITH, B. E. (2007). “Arms Racing in ‘Space’: Spatial Modelling ofMilitary Spending around the World”. Australian Journal of Political Science, 42:3, 419-440.
  • GYLFASON, T., MARTINEZ-ZARZOSO, I., and WIJKMAN P.M. (2015.) “Can free trade help convert the ‘Arab Spring’ into permanent peace and democracy?”. Defence and Peace Economics, 26:3, 247-270.
  • HF, Heritage Foundation, 2019, Economic Freedom Index.
  • JAMES, P., SOLBERG, E., and WOLFSON, M. (1999). “An identified systemic model of the democracy peace nexus”. Defence and Peace Economics, 10: 1-38.
  • KIM, H. C., KIM, H. M., and LEE, J. (2013). “The Post-Coup Military Spending Question Revisited, 1960–2000”. International Interactions, 39 (3): 367–385.
  • KIMENYI, M. S., and MBAKU, J. M. (1995). “Rents, military elites, and political democracy”. European Journal of Political Economy, 11(4), 699-708.
  • LEBOVIC, J. H. (2001). “Spending Priorities and Democratic Rule in Latin America.” Journal of Peace Research, 45 (4): 427–452.
  • LSKAVYAN, V. (2011). “Democracy levels and the income–military expenditure relationship”, Applied Economics Letters, 18:15, 1485-1489.
  • MULLIGAN, C., GIL, R. and SALA-I-MARTİN, X. (2004). “Do democracies have different public policies than nondemocracies?”. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 18, 51–74.
  • NORDHAUS, W., ONEAL, J. R., and RUSSETT, B. (2009). “The Effects of the security environment on military expenditures: Pooled analyses of 165 Countries, 1950-2000”. Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1707, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, revised Oct 2009.
  • NORDHAUS, W., ONEAL, J. R., and RUSSETT, B. (2012). “The Effects of the International Security Environment on National Military Expenditures: A Multicountry Study.” International Organization 66 (3): 491–513.
  • PESARAN, M. H. (2004). “General Diagnostic Tests for Cross Section Dependence in Panels.” The University of Cambridge, Faculty of Economics, Cambridge WP 0435 in Economics, 1-43.
  • PESARAN, M. H., ULLAH, A., and YAMAGATA, T. (2008). “A Bias-Adjusted LM Test of Error Cross-Section Independence”. Econometrics Journal, 11: 105-127.
  • ROSH, R. M. (1988). “Third World Militarization: Security Webs and the States They Ensnare”. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 32 (4): 671–698.
  • ROTA, M. (2011). “Military Burden and the Democracy Puzzle.” MPRA Paper No. 35254, 1-31.
  • ROTA, M. (2016). “Military spending, fiscal capacity, and the democracy puzzle”. Explorations in Economic History, 60, 41-51.
  • RUSSETT, B. M. (1993). Grasping the Democratic Peace: Principles for a Post-cold War World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • SEIGLIE, C. (2016). “Openness of the Economy, Terms of Trade, and Arms”. Southern Economic Journal, 82(3): 748-759.
  • SIPRI. (2019). “SIPRI Military Expenditure Database”. Solna: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
  • SOLARIN, S. A. (2018). “Determinants of Military Expenditure and the Role of Globalisation in a Cross-Country Analysis”, Defence and Peace Economics, 29:7, 853-870.
  • TATOGLU, F. Y. (2017). Panel Zaman Serileri Analizi, Beta Yayınevi, İstanbul.
  • TAYLOR, M. P., and SARNO, L. (1998). “The Behaviour of Real Exchange Rates During the Post-Bretton Words Period”. Journal of Internal Economics, 46(2): 281-312.
  • TONGUR, U., HSU, S., and ELVEREN, A. Y. (2015). “Military Expenditures and Political Regimes: Evidence from Global Data, 1963– 2000”. Economic Modelling, 44 (C): 68–79.
  • WALL, H. (1996). “Is a military really a luxury good? An international panel study of LDCs”. Applied Economics, 28: 41–4.
  • WB, World Bank, 2019 World Development Indicators.
  • YILDIRIM, J., and SEZGIN, S. (2005). “Democracy and Military Expenditure: Cross-Country Evidence”. Transition Studies Review, 12 (1): 93–100.
There are 48 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Economics
Journal Section Makaleler
Authors

İlyas Sözen 0000-0002-6503-4696

Mustafa Batuhan Tufaner 0000-0003-0415-4368

Publication Date January 31, 2020
Acceptance Date January 24, 2020
Published in Issue Year 2020 Volume: 4 Issue: 1

Cite

APA Sözen, İ., & Tufaner, M. B. (2020). The Relationship Between Military Expenditures and Economic Freedom in the Middle East and North Africa Region. Alanya Akademik Bakış, 4(1), 63-76. https://doi.org/10.29023/alanyaakademik.649370