Military expenditure in third world countries : economic effects

This up-to-date and comprehensive study analyses the economic effects of military expenditure in less developed countries, a dimension now recognised as a central part of the development process. In less developed countries the size of defence budgets, as well as the share of military spending in national income, is high and is still rising. From the 1970s the arms trade has been increasing, and most of the spending on arms is by the poorer nations of the world. Wars and military conflagrations in the developing world are rampant, yet economic development remains elusive. The book focuses on the economic dimensions of militarisation and discusses the direct and indirect effects that high military expenditure has on a developing economy. The author covers a large volume of formal evidence as well as experience of specific countries. She shows that higher spending on the military does have economic benefits: it can provide effective demand, stability, inter industrial linkages, and other spin-offs. But the negative effects far outweigh the positive ones - there are strong reasons to believe that defence spending significantly depresses growth and constrains development.

The general presentation makes the book accessible to a wide readership- - in political science, development studies, military and peace studies as well as economics. There is also a major technical innovation: the econometric analysis conducted to test the relationships between security-related expenditure and the parameters of economic growth and development.