IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/reorpe/v51y2019i4p606-628.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

US Military Spending: A Perspective on the Restructuring Dynamics of the Defense Sector

Author

Listed:
  • Eleonora Gentilucci

Abstract

The political economy of defense spending is enormously important given its magnitude and its global implication. Since the late 1990s, world and US military spending has being rising. This trend appears to be in sharp contrast to the long-term forecast about the so-called “peace dividend†formulated after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In order to explain this trend of military expenditures in the United States, the restructuring of the defense sector (in terms of concentration and financialization), the shift from a focus on “defense†to “security,†and the role and influence of “vested interests†in this process leading to the creation of the military-security system, are taken into consideration. The relation between social spending and military expenditures is also discussed. JEL Classification: H56, H5, B5, F52, L16

Suggested Citation

  • Eleonora Gentilucci, 2019. "US Military Spending: A Perspective on the Restructuring Dynamics of the Defense Sector," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 51(4), pages 606-628, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:51:y:2019:i:4:p:606-628
    DOI: 10.1177/0486613419844641
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613419844641
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0486613419844641?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Reich, Michael, 1972. "Does the U.S. Economy Require Military Spending?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(2), pages 296-303, May.
    2. Malcolm Knight & Norman Loayza & Delano Villanueva, 1996. "The Peace Dividend: Military Spending Cuts and Economic Growth," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 43(1), pages 1-37, March.
    3. Anton Hemerijck & Frank Vandenbroucke & Torben Andersen & Philippe Pochet & Christophe Degryse & Gaetano Basso & Mathias Dolls & Werner Eichhorst & Thomas Leoni & Andreas Peichl & Peter Taylor-Gooby, 2012. "The welfare state after the great recession," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 47(4), pages 200-229, July.
    4. James M. Cypher, 1987. "Military Spending, Technical Change, and Economic Growth: A Disguised Form of Industrial Policy?," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 33-59, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Tyler Saxon, 2021. "Military Subsidization of Human Capital and Gender Stratification in the US Economy," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 53(2), pages 250-265, June.
    2. Pelin Akçagün-Narin & Adem Yavuz Elveren, 2024. "Financialization and Militarization: An Empirical Investigation," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 56(1), pages 70-100, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Khalid Zaman, 2019. "Does higher military spending affect business regulatory and growth specific measures? Evidence from the group of seven (G-7) countries," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 36(1), pages 323-348, April.
    2. Adem Y. Elveren & Sara Hsu, 2016. "Military Expenditures and Profit Rates: Evidence from OECD Countries," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(3), pages 551-577, July.
    3. Adem Yavuz Elveren & Sara Hsu, 2018. "The Effect of Military Expenditure on Profit Rates: Evidence from Major Countries," World Journal of Applied Economics, WERI-World Economic Research Institute, vol. 4(2), pages 75-94, December.
    4. Chang Woon Nam & Jan Schumacher, 2014. "Dynamics and Time Frameof Post War Recovery Required for Compensating Civil War Economic Losses," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 15(03), pages 79-87, August.
    5. Albert J.F. Yang & William N. Trumbull & Chin Wei Yang & Bwo‐Nung Huang, 2011. "On The Relationship Between Military Expenditure, Threat, And Economic Growth: A Nonlinear Approach," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(4), pages 449-457, April.
    6. Zhang, Zhikai & Wang, Yudong & Xiao, Jihong & Zhang, Yaojie, 2023. "Not all geopolitical shocks are alike: Identifying price dynamics in the crude oil market under tensions," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    7. Pierluigi Daddi & Giorgio d’Agostino & Luca Pieroni, 2018. "Does military spending stimulate growth? An empirical investigation in Italy," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 440-458, June.
    8. Niloy Bose & M. Emranul Haque & Denise R. Osborn, 2007. "Public Expenditure And Economic Growth: A Disaggregated Analysis For Developing Countries," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 75(5), pages 533-556, September.
    9. Paul Collier & Anke Hoeffler, 2006. "Military expenditure in post-conflict societies," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 89-107, January.
    10. Arunatilake, Nisha & Jayasuriya, Sisira & Kelegama, Saman, 2001. "The Economic Cost of the War in Sri Lanka," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(9), pages 1483-1500, September.
    11. Thorvaldur Gylfason & Gylfi Zoega, 2006. "Natural Resources and Economic Growth: The Role of Investment," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 1091-1115, August.
    12. Rama,Martin G., 1997. "Efficient public sector downsizing," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1840, The World Bank.
    13. Florin ŞUHAN, 2019. "Study On Defense Expenditure And Its Financing," EURINT, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 6, pages 256-268.
    14. Vusal Musayev, 2016. "Externalities in Military Spending and Growth: The Role of Natural Resources as a Channel through Conflict," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 378-391, June.
    15. Wen-Min Lu & Qian Long Kweh & Kang-Fu Chen, 2021. "How do peace dividends bring about human development and productivity?," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 306(1), pages 435-452, November.
    16. Na Hou & Bo Chen, 2013. "Military Expenditure And Economic Growth In Developing Countries: Evidence From System Gmm Estimates," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 183-193, June.
    17. Joseph Mawejje & Patrick McSharry, 2021. "The economic cost of conflict: Evidence from South Sudan," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(4), pages 1969-1990, November.
    18. Gil-Alana Luis A. & Singh Prakarsh, 2014. "Economic Growth and Recovery After Civil Wars," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 20(4), pages 565-574, December.
    19. Vincenzo Bove & Jennifer Brauner, 2016. "The demand for military expenditure in authoritarian regimes," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(5), pages 609-625, September.
    20. Eftychia Nikolaidou, 2012. "Defence Spending, Economic Growth, Corruption And Inequality," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(6), pages 533-535, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    military expenditures; military-industrial system; military security system; political economy of defense spending; restructuration of the US defense sector;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H56 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - National Security and War
    • H5 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies
    • B5 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches
    • F52 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - National Security; Economic Nationalism
    • L16 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Industrial Organization and Macroeconomics; Macroeconomic Industrial Structure

    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:sae:reorpe:v:51:y:2019:i:4:p:606-628. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.urpe.org/ .

    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.