EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MILITARY SPENDING & HUMAN RIGHTS PERFORMANCE IN SOUTH ASIA

Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati () and K K Shakya Lahiru Pathmalal ()

No wp941, William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series from William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Abstract: The relationship between military spending and human rights is one of the most prominent issues in political economy. Yet, the linkage between the two is empirically underdeveloped. Seeking to fulfill this existing gap in the literature, we examine the effects of militarization on human rights performance in six South Asian economies for the period 1980 – 2006. Our findings demonstrate that an increase in military spending significantly reduces human rights. Acceleration of military spending is also associated with decline in human rights performance. By gauging the effect of military spending on human rights conditions during war and peace years, we found that irrespective of war or peace years, any increase in military spending is detrimental to human rights conditions. Further, we find that the negative impact of military spending on human rights is conditioned by increase in their neighbors’ spending. Given the wide range of socioeconomic and political problems ailing South Asian countries, these results gain significant importance. The study suggests that reduction in military pending could help reallocate the resources to productive purposes, thereby paving way for development and progress. This help reducing social unrest and economic insecurity, thereby increases government’s respect for human rights.

Keywords: Military spending; Human rights; South Asia. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H56 P48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: pages
Date: 2008-10-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.wdi.umich.edu/files/Publications/WorkingPapers/wp941.pdf
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (http://www.wdi.umich.edu/files/Publications/WorkingPapers/wp941.pdf [302 Found]--> https://wdi.umich.edu/files/Publications/WorkingPapers/wp941.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:wdi:papers:2008-941

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series from William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan 724 E. University Ave, Wyly Hall 1st Flr, Ann Arbor MI 48109. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by WDI ().