The determinants of defense burden sharing in the European Union from 1980 to 2024

Anna Balestra (), Raul Caruso () and Sara Mombelli ()
Additional contact information
Anna Balestra: Dipartimento di Politica Economica, DISCE, & International Peace Science Center (IPSC), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano, Italy
Sara Mombelli: Sapienza University of Rome, Italy - International Peace Science Center (IPSC), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano, Italy

No dipe0054, DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Politica Economica from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE)

Abstract: This paper investigates the determinants of defense burden sharing among EU member states from 1980 to 2024. Using a dataset that combines established factors with historical and institutional indicators, we analyze how structural features shape national share of total EU military expenditure. Fixed-effects panel regressions, complemented by fractional logit and probit models, reveal that economic features, colonial legacy, constitutional complexity, and technological sophistication systematically influence defense contributions among non-leader states. In addition, we show that France, Germany and the United Kingdom behave as structural leaders whose commitments remain high and largely insensitive to domestic conditions, thereby masking key relationships in full-sample estimations. The results provide a comprehensive account of the drivers of defense effort and highlight the asymmetric foundations of collective defense in Europe.

Keywords: defense burden sharing; military spending; institutions; H2O random forest; European Union (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 F50 H56 O52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38
Date: 2025-12
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://dipartimenti.unicatt.it/politica-economica-DIPE0054.pdf First version, 2025 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ctc:serie5:dipe0054

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Politica Economica from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Fabio Montobbio ().