IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecmode/v30y2013icp449-455.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Guns, highways and economic growth in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Kollias, Christos
  • Paleologou, Suzanna-Maria

Abstract

Given its significant policy implications, the nexus between public expenditures and economic growth has been the subject of an extensive and often emotive theoretical and empirical debate. The nexus between two types of public expenditures and economic growth is examined in this paper using both linear and nonlinear causality tests. Both spending on highways and on defence are regarded, albeit with not the same intensity of conviction, as useful counter-cyclical policy instruments and as stimuli to economic growth. Findings reported herein from both linear and non-linear causality tests offer evidence in support for the growth enhancing properties of the former type of public spending but not so in the case of military expenditure.

Suggested Citation

  • Kollias, Christos & Paleologou, Suzanna-Maria, 2013. "Guns, highways and economic growth in the United States," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 449-455.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:30:y:2013:i:c:p:449-455
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2012.09.048
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999312003239
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2012.09.048?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. H. Sonmez Atesoglu, 2009. "Defense Spending And Aggregate Output In The United States," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 21-26.
    2. Wang, Tung-Pao & Shyu, Stacy Huey-Pyng & Chou, Han-Chung, 2012. "The impact of defense expenditure on economic productivity in OECD countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 2104-2114.
    3. Cain, Louis P., 1997. "Historical perspective on infrastructure and US economic development," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 117-138, April.
    4. J Paul Dunne, 2011. "Military Keynesianism: An Assessment," Working Papers 1106, Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol.
    5. Aschauer, David Alan, 1989. "Is public expenditure productive?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 177-200, March.
    6. J Paul Dunne & Fanny Coulomb, 2008. "Peace, War and International Security: Economic Theories," Working Papers 0803, Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol.
    7. Michael Perelman, 2004. "Speculations on the Political Economy of War and Empire," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 297-306, September.
    8. J. Paul Dunne & Ron Smith, 2010. "Military Expenditure And Granger Causality: A Critical Review," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(5-6), pages 427-441.
    9. Barro, Robert J, 1990. "Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogenous Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 103-126, October.
    10. Mourmouras, Iannis A. & Lee, Jong Eun, 1999. "Government spending on infrastructure in an endogenous growth model with finite horizons," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 395-407, September.
    11. Jesús Crespo Cuaresma & Gerhard Reitschuler, 2004. "A non-linear defence-growth nexus? evidence from the US economy," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 71-82, February.
    12. James Meernik, 2000. "Modeling International Crises and the Political Use of Military Force by the USA," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 37(5), pages 547-562, September.
    13. Chandra, Amitabh & Thompson, Eric, 2000. "Does public infrastructure affect economic activity?: Evidence from the rural interstate highway system," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 457-490, July.
    14. Guy D. Whitten & Laron K. Williams, 2011. "Buttery Guns and Welfare Hawks: The Politics of Defense Spending in Advanced Industrial Democracies," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(1), pages 117-134, January.
    15. Granger, Clive W. J., 2003. "Some aspects of causal relationships," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 112(1), pages 69-71, January.
    16. Granger, C. W. J., 1988. "Some recent development in a concept of causality," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1-2), pages 199-211.
    17. Rangan Gupta & Alain Kabundi & Emmanuel Ziramba, 2010. "The Effect Of Defense Spending On Us Output: A Factor Augmented Vector Autoregression (Favar) Approach," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 135-147.
    18. H. Sonmez Atesoglu, 2002. "Defense Spending Promotes Aggregate Output in the United States--Evidence from Cointegration Analysis," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 55-60.
    19. Pieroni, Luca, 2009. "Does defence expenditure affect private consumption? Evidence from the United States," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 1300-1309, November.
    20. Granger, C. W. J. & Newbold, P., 1974. "Spurious regressions in econometrics," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 111-120, July.
    21. Robert J. Barro & Xavier Sala-I-Martin, 1992. "Public Finance in Models of Economic Growth," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 59(4), pages 645-661.
    22. Andreas Irmen & Johanna Kuehnel, 2009. "Productive Government Expenditure And Economic Growth," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(4), pages 692-733, September.
    23. Robert J. Barro, 1992. "Human capital and economic growth," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 199-216.
    24. Nikolaos Mylonidis, 2008. "Revisiting The Nexus Between Military Spending And Growth In The European Union," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 265-272.
    25. Pieroni, Luca & d'Agostino, Giorgio & Lorusso, Marco, 2008. "Can we declare military Keynesianism dead?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 675-691.
    26. Demetriades, Panicos O & Mamuneas, Theofanis P, 2000. "Intertemporal Output and Employment Effects of Public Infrastructure Capital: Evidence from 12 OECD Economics," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(465), pages 687-712, July.
    27. Dunne, Paul, 1990. "The Political Economy of Military Expenditure: An Introduction," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(4), pages 395-404, December.
    28. Christos Kollias & Suzanna‐Maria Paleologou, 2010. "Growth, investment and military expenditure in the European Union‐15," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 37(2), pages 228-240, May.
    29. Pivetti, Massimo, 1992. "Military Spending as a Burden on Growth: An 'Underconsumptionist' Critique," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 16(4), pages 373-384, December.
    30. Jacques Fontanel & Manas Chatterji, 2008. "War, peace and security," Post-Print hal-02388881, HAL.
    31. Paul E. Dunne & Fanny Coulomb, 2008. "Peace, war and international security," Post-Print hal-02388862, HAL.
    32. Futagami, Koichi & Morita, Yuichi & Shibata, Akihisa, 1993. " Dynamic Analysis of an Endogenous Growth Model with Public Capital," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(4), pages 607-625, December.
    33. Holtz-Eakin, Douglas & Schwartz, Amy Ellen, 1995. "Infrastructure in a structural model of economic growth," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 131-151, April.
    34. Marcela Eslava, 2011. "The Political Economy Of Fiscal Deficits: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(4), pages 645-673, September.
    35. J. Paul Dunne & Ron Smith & Dirk Willenbockel, 2005. "Models Of Military Expenditure And Growth: A Critical Review," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(6), pages 449-461.
    36. Roubini, Nouriel & Sala-i-Martin, Xavier, 1992. "Financial repression and economic growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 5-30, July.
    37. Wang, Eric C., 2002. "Public infrastructure and economic growth: a new approach applied to East Asian economies," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 411-435, August.
    38. Jeffrey Smith & M. H. Tuttle, 2008. "Does Defense Spending Really Promote Aggregate Output In The United States?," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(6), pages 435-447.
    39. Wu, Shih-Ying & Tang, Jenn-Hong & Lin, Eric S., 2010. "The impact of government expenditure on economic growth: How sensitive to the level of development?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 804-817, November.
    40. Chang, Hsin-Chen & Huang, Bwo-Nung & Yang, Chin Wei, 2011. "Military expenditure and economic growth across different groups: A dynamic panel Granger-causality approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 2416-2423.
    41. d'Agostino, G. & Dunne, J.P. & Pieroni, L., 2011. "Optimal military spending in the US: A time series analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 1068-1077, May.
    42. Hiemstra, Craig & Jones, Jonathan D, 1994. "Testing for Linear and Nonlinear Granger Causality in the Stock Price-Volume Relation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(5), pages 1639-1664, December.
    43. O. F. Hamouda & J. C.R. Rowley (ed.), 1997. "Time Series Models, Causality and Exogeneity," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1274.
    44. Pivetti, Massimo, 1994. "Effective Demand, 'Marxo-Marginalism' and the Economics of Military Spending: Rejoinder," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(5), pages 523-527, October.
    45. Jacques Fontanel & Ivan Samson, 2008. "The determinants of military expenditures," Post-Print hal-02068194, HAL.
    46. Ward, Michael D. & Davis, David R., 1992. "Sizing up the Peace Dividend: Economic Growth and Military Spending in the United States, 1948–1996," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 86(3), pages 748-755, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bove Vincenzo & Elia Leandro & Pelliccia Marco, 2016. "Centrality in Trade Networks and Investment in Security," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 22(1), pages 27-39, January.
    2. Vincenzo Bove & Roberto Nisticò, 2014. "Coups d’état and defense spending: a counterfactual analysis," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 161(3), pages 321-344, December.
    3. Michał Konopczyński, 2018. "How Taxes, Education and Public Capital Influence Economic Growth in Poland," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 12(3), September.
    4. Malizard, Julien, 2015. "Does military expenditure crowd out private investment? A disaggregated perspective for the case of France," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 44-52.
    5. Mehmet Akif Destek & Ilyas Okumus, 2016. "Military Expenditure and Economic Growth in Brics and Mist Countries: Evidence from Bootstrap Panel Granger Causality Analysis," South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, Association of Economic Universities of South and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region, vol. 14(2), pages 175-186.
    6. E. Desli & A. Gkoulgkoutsika, 2021. "Military spending and economic growth: a panel data investigation," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 781-806, August.
    7. Charles Shaaba Saba & Nicholas Ngepah, 2022. "Nexus between defence spending, economic growth and development: evidence from a disaggregated panel data analysis," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 109-151, February.
    8. Abdulnasser Hatemi-J & Tsangyao Chang & Wen-Yi Chen & Feng-Li Lin & Rangan Gupta, 2015. "Asymmetric Granger Causality between Military Expenditures and Economic Growth in Top Six Defense Suppliers," Working Papers 201565, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    9. Kyriakos Emmanouilidis & Christos Karpetis, 2020. "The Defense–Growth Nexus: A Review of Time Series Methods and Empirical Results," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 86-104, January.
    10. Lu Yang & Dan Wu & Shuhui Cao & Weinan Zhang & Zebin Zheng & Li Liu, 2022. "Transportation Interrelation Embedded in Regional Development: The Characteristics and Drivers of Road Transportation Interrelation in Guangdong Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-18, May.
    11. Charles Shaaba Saba & Nicholas Ngepah, 2020. "Empirical Analysis of Military Expenditure and Industrialisation Nexus: A Regional Approach for Africa," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(1), pages 58-84, January.
    12. Callado-Muñoz, Francisco J. & Hromcová, Jana & Utrero-González, Natalia, 2023. "Can buying weapons from your friends make you better off? Evidence from NATO," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    13. Chen, Pei-Fen & Lee, Chien-Chiang & Chiu, Yi-Bin, 2014. "The nexus between defense expenditure and economic growth: New global evidence," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 474-483.
    14. Duygu Yolcu Karadam & Jülide Yildirim & Nadir Öcal, 2017. "Military expenditure and economic growth in Middle Eastern countries and Turkey: a non-linear panel data approach," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(6), pages 719-730, November.
    15. Saba Charles Shaaba, 2022. "Defence Spending and Economic Growth in South Africa: Evidence from Cointegration and Co-Feature Analysis," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 28(1), pages 51-100, February.
    16. Phuong Nguyen-Hoang, 2015. "Volatile earmarked revenues and state highway expenditures in the United States," Transportation, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 237-256, March.
    17. J. Paul Dunne & Christine S. Makanza, 2019. "Nonlinear Effects of Military Spending on Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa," School of Economics Macroeconomic Discussion Paper Series 2019-04, School of Economics, University of Cape Town.
    18. Christos Kollias & Suzanna-Maria Paleologou, 2015. "Defence And Non-Defence Spending In The Usa: Stimuli To Economic Growth? Comparative Findings From A Semiparametric Approach," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(4), pages 359-370, October.
    19. Bove, Vincenzo & Nisticò, Roberto, 2014. "Military in politics and budgetary allocations," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 1065-1078.
    20. E. Desli & A. Gkoulgkoutsika & C. Katrakilidis, 2017. "Investigating the Dynamic Interaction between Military Spending and Economic Growth," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 511-526, August.
    21. Vincenzo Bove & Jennifer Brauner, 2016. "The demand for military expenditure in authoritarian regimes," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(5), pages 609-625, September.
    22. Abdulnasser Hatemi-J & Tsangyao Chang & Wen-Yi Chen & Feng-Li Lin & Rangan Gupta, 2018. "Asymmetric causality between military expenditures and economic growth in top six defense spenders," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 1193-1207, May.
    23. Kollias Christos & Tzeremes Panayiotis & Paleologou Suzanna-Maria, 2020. "Defence Spending and Unemployment in the USA: Disaggregated Analysis by Gender and Age Groups," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 26(2), pages 1-13, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. J Paul Dunne, 2011. "Military Keynesianism: An Assessment," Working Papers 1106, Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol.
    2. Garfinkel, Michelle R. & Skaperdas, Stergios (ed.), 2012. "The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Peace and Conflict," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195392777, Decembrie.
    3. Christos Kollias & Suzanna-Maria Paleologou, 2015. "Defence And Non-Defence Spending In The Usa: Stimuli To Economic Growth? Comparative Findings From A Semiparametric Approach," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(4), pages 359-370, October.
    4. Innocent.U. Duru & Millicent Adanne Eze & Bartholomew.O.N. Okafor & Abubakar Yusuf & Lawrence.O. Ede & Abubakar Sadiq Saleh, 2021. "Military Outlay and Economic Growth: The Scenarios of Lake Chad Basin Countries of the Republic of Chad and Nigeria," Growth, Asian Online Journal Publishing Group, vol. 8(1), pages 12-26.
    5. Muhammad Shahbaz & Talat Afza & Muhammad Shahbaz Shabbir, 2013. "Does Defence Spending Impede Economic Growth? Cointegration And Causality Analysis For Pakistan," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2), pages 105-120, April.
    6. Ran Tao & Oana Ramona Glonț & Zheng-Zheng Li & Oana Ramona Lobonț & Adina Alexandra Guzun, 2020. "New Evidence for Romania Regarding Dynamic Causality between Military Expenditure and Sustainable Economic Growth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-13, June.
    7. Kyriakos Emmanouilidis & Christos Karpetis, 2020. "The Defense–Growth Nexus: A Review of Time Series Methods and Empirical Results," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 86-104, January.
    8. Giorgio d’Agostino & John Paul Dunne & Luca Pieroni, 2019. "Military Expenditure, Endogeneity and Economic Growth," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(5), pages 509-524, July.
    9. Alptekin, Aynur & Levine, Paul, 2012. "Military expenditure and economic growth: A meta-analysis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 636-650.
    10. Kollias Christos & Tzeremes Panayiotis & Paleologou Suzanna-Maria, 2020. "Defence Spending and Unemployment in the USA: Disaggregated Analysis by Gender and Age Groups," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 26(2), pages 1-13, May.
    11. Charles Shaaba Saba & Nicholas Ngepah, 2022. "Nexus between defence spending, economic growth and development: evidence from a disaggregated panel data analysis," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 109-151, February.
    12. Chen, Pei-Fen & Lee, Chien-Chiang & Chiu, Yi-Bin, 2014. "The nexus between defense expenditure and economic growth: New global evidence," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 474-483.
    13. Malizard, Julien, 2015. "Does military expenditure crowd out private investment? A disaggregated perspective for the case of France," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 44-52.
    14. Charles Shaaba Saba & Nicholas Ngepah, 2020. "Empirical Analysis of Military Expenditure and Industrialisation Nexus: A Regional Approach for Africa," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(1), pages 58-84, January.
    15. Duygu Yolcu Karadam & Jülide Yildirim & Nadir Öcal, 2017. "Military expenditure and economic growth in Middle Eastern countries and Turkey: a non-linear panel data approach," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(6), pages 719-730, November.
    16. Tsangyao Chang & Chien-Chiang Lee & Hsiao-Ping Chu, 2015. "Revisiting the Defense-Growth nexus in European countries," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(3), pages 341-356, June.
    17. J. Paul Dunne & Christine S. Makanza, 2019. "Nonlinear Effects of Military Spending on Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa," School of Economics Macroeconomic Discussion Paper Series 2019-04, School of Economics, University of Cape Town.
    18. Julien Malizard, 2014. "Dépenses militaires et croissance économique dans un contexte non linéaire. Le cas français," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 65(3), pages 601-618.
    19. Uk Heo & Min Ye, 2016. "Defense Spending and Economic Growth around the Globe: The Direct and Indirect Link," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(5), pages 774-796, October.
    20. Ünal Töngür & Adem Yavuz Elveren, 2016. "The impact of military spending and income inequality on economic growth in Turkey," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 433-452, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Highway spending; Military spending; USA; Economic growth; Nonlinear causality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H54 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Infrastructures
    • H56 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - National Security and War
    • C22 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:30:y:2013:i:c:p:449-455. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30411 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.