Defense expenditures and national well-being

Bruce M. Russett

pp. 137-152

in: Harvey Starr (ed), Bruce M. Russett, Berlin, Springer, 2015

Abstract

The existence of a trade-off between military expenditures and social spending is widely hypothesized but often difficult to establish empirically. This article constructs a model to test the effects of changes in military spending on federal expenditures for health and education from 1941 through 1979. Important economic, demographic, and political changes are controlled. No systematic tradeoff between military spending and federal health and education expenditures is found, nor in this period was there any significant depressing effect on health and education expenditures by Republican presidential administrations. Thus, the current (Reagan) administration, under which there are major increases in military spending and major cuts in health and education spending, emerges as exceptional.