Military expenditure and economic growth in the European Union: Evidence from SIPRI’s extended dataset

Abstract

The aim of this article is to shed light on the fiscal consequences of economic growth in the EU15 countries by disentangling military and civilian government expenditure. Given the newly available extended dataset on military expenditure provided by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a comparison can be made to older SIPRI data. Using growth theory and panel data analysis, the results show that public spending is growth detrimental and military expenditure is less harmful than nonmilitary, civilian spending. The new data offer a richer pattern of results.