IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/pepspp/v24y2018i4p5n1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Military Spending and Inequality in Autocracies: A Simple Model

Author

Listed:
  • Schwuchow Soeren C.

    (Brandenburg University of Technology. Chair of Microeconomics. P.O. Box 10 13 44, 03013Cottbus, Germany, Phone +49-355-692983)

Abstract

In this note, we outline a general framework for analyzing how inequality and military spending interact in a society governed by a rent-seeking autocrat. Relying on a general equilibrium model, we show that, generally, the autocrat utilizes the military for redistribution in favor of poorer citizens. However, the dictator’s own rent-seeking activity weakens the extent of redistribution and, in the extreme, can even reverse its direction, yielding more unequal secondary distributions instead. Accordingly, the initial level of inequality also affects the impact of military spending on inequality as the former has an impact on the extent of both, the regime’s rent-seeking activity as well as redistribution. Here, our model shows that primary and secondary distributions are rather equal for extreme initial equality/inequality. For medium levels of initial inequality, redistribution is rather large and can be in favor of the poor or of the rich, depending on the extent of rent-seeking and the primary distribution. Based on these results, we highlight the importance of a society’s institutional framework for analyzing the relation of inequality and military spending.

Suggested Citation

  • Schwuchow Soeren C., 2018. "Military Spending and Inequality in Autocracies: A Simple Model," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 24(4), pages 1-5, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:pepspp:v:24:y:2018:i:4:p:5:n:1
    DOI: 10.1515/peps-2018-0025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/peps-2018-0025
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/peps-2018-0025?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sudeshna Ghosh, 2022. "Analysing the nexus between income inequality and military expenditure in top ten defence expenditure economies," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 689-712, April.
    2. Antonella Biscione & Raul Caruso, 2021. "Military Expenditures and Income Inequality Evidence from a Panel of Transition Countries (1990-2015)," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1), pages 46-67, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inequality; autocracies; rent-seeking; military spending;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H56 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - National Security and War
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:pepspp:v:24:y:2018:i:4:p:5:n:1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.