Arms production, national defense spending and arms trade: Examining supply and demand

Johannes Blum

European Journal of Political Economy, 2019, vol. 60, issue C

Abstract: Scholars have estimated demand functions for national defense spending and investigated international arms trade for a long time. The relationship between supply and demand for military goods has, however, only been examined on aggregate level or in formal models yet. I investigate how the supply of military goods by arms-producing companies and the demand for military goods by both the national government and foreign governments are related by using a panel of up to 195 arms-producing companies in 21 countries for the period 2002–2016. The results show that if the demand for national defense spending increases by 1%, the arms sales by a country’s largest arms-producing companies increase by up to 1.2%. If exports of major conventional weapons increase by 1%, sales increase by up to 0.2%. Arms imports do not affect domestic arms sales because imported and domestically produced arms are complements, and countries mainly import those arms they do not produce themselves. Country-specific estimation results suggest that differences among countries in geopolitical conditions and international relations determine whether a country’s arms industry serves economic rather than security purposes.

Keywords: Arms industry; Arms trade; Defense spending; Panel data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 F14 H56 L64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Arms Production, National Defense Spending and Arms Trade: Examining Supply and Demand (2019)
Working Paper: Arms production, national defense spending and arms trade: Examining supply and demand (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:poleco:v:60:y:2019:i:c:s0176268019301314

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2019.101814

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