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Institutional Determinants of Military Spending

Author

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  • Germà Bel

    (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona)

  • Ferran Elias-Moreno

    (Department of Economics, Columbia University)

Abstract

Drawing on a database for 1988-2006 containing information on 157 countries, we investigate the effects on military spending of government form, electoral rules, concentration of parliamentary parties, and ideology. From an OLS regression on pooled data, our results show that presidential democracies spend more than parliamentary systems on defense, whereas the presence of a plurality voting system will reduce the defense burden. Our findings suggest that, in contrast to theoretical predictions in the literature, institutions do not have the same impact on the provision of all public goods. We present as well evidence regarding the effect of ideology on defense spending.

Suggested Citation

  • Germà Bel & Ferran Elias-Moreno, 2009. "Institutional Determinants of Military Spending," IREA Working Papers 200922, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Oct 2009.
    • Handle: RePEc:ira:wpaper:200922
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Military Spending; Politics; Institutions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • H56 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - National Security and War

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