Military expenditure in global perspective: beyond measurement and causality

Abstract

Military spending has been widely discussed in the literature. Recent authors have even ad- vanced in the search for causality through various statistical techniques. Although these contributions are relevant, here I support two different arguments. First, military spending and its potential predictors have a bidirectional and not a causal relationship. Second, while most work with a single predictor, there are few studies comparing variables. The results indicate that the relationship between military spending and internal and external factors depends, precisely, on the variables and indicators that are used. Depending on how it is measured, the results obtained may vary substantively.