Military expenditures and human development measures

This article examines the relation between measures of military affairs (such as its budgetary cost and the size of armed forces) and measures of human development (such as education, health, freedom, and income). The article’s major innovation concerns the separation of data by groups of countries. Across a variety of statistical specifications, the paper finds that the statistical relation between military and human development variables is inconclusive, except for the case of the industrialized nations where a clear negative relation emerges. A discussion of the findings, aimed at the public policy-maker, concludes the article.