Citation

Harris G, Kelly M, Pranowo. J. Peace Res. 1988; 25(2): 165-177.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1988, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/002234338802500205

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

It is commonly believed that defence expenditures have a particular ability to compete government financial resources away from other activities, especially education and health. This article uses a number of methods to test for the existence and strength of such trade-offs in a large number of LDCs. Cross- sectional analysis of government expenditures found that few countries which were low defence spenders were high spenders on education/health (and vice versa). Defence expenditures were no less vulnerable to overall budget cuts, nor more likely to gain from budget increases than education and health. Finally, a longitudinal regression analysis for twelve Asian countries revealed little evidence of trade-offs We discuss some of the reasons why our analysis may not support the conventional view on trade-offs and, finally, make a number of suggestions concerning future research on this topic.