Economic growth, repression, and state expenditure in non-democratic regimes

Muhammed N. Islam

European Journal of Political Economy, 2015, vol. 37, issue C, 68-85

Abstract: This paper examines how economic growth affects government spending in non-democracies. A robust finding is that positive growth induces a significant increase in defence spending but a decrease in non-defence spending in dictatorships, with little effect in democracies. Government spending is slightly sensitive to negative growth across regimes. Higher growth rate in a country than its neighbours induces more spending than their average. Corruption causes a reduction in defence spending but an increase in non-defence spending. Primary education stimulates non-defence spending but reduces defence expenditure, secondary education causing the opposite effect. An under-developed country spends less than a developed country.

Keywords: Defence spending; Political regimes; Panel data; 3SLS estimation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:poleco:v:37:y:2015:i:c:p:68-85

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2014.10.006

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