Military expenditures and human capital development in sub-Saharan Africa: a system GMM approach

Njifen, Issofou; Anemann, Anna

doi:10.1080/21665095.2022.2163678

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Some scholars have attempted to establish the relationship between military expenditure and variants of economic activities in Africa. For instance, ample evidence on military expenditure and economic growth as well as education expenditure in Africa has been shown in the studies of Saba and Ngepah (2019), Dunne (2011) and Njifen and Anemann (2023). However, evidence of the relationship between the two has been documented in other regions of the continent and the outcome of the investigation has shown mixed results.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Role of Institutional Quality in the Crowding-out Effect of Military Expenditure on Health Expenditure and Outcomes in Africa

Badmus,

Raifu,

Opeloyeru

2024

Preprint

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This study revisits the long-standing debate on the guns-versus-butter phenomenon that spending on military activity crowds out non-military expenditure. By focusing on Africa, we argue that the crowding-out effect of military expenditure on health expenditure extends beyond government health expenditure but also private and out-of-pocket health expenditure and health outcomes. The empirical analysis based on the dynamic two-step system generalized method of moments reveals that modelling the crowding-out effect of military expenditure on health outcomes by omitting institutional quality measures biased the estimates. After the inclusion, there is evidence of the crowding-out effect of military expenditure, which causes government health expenditure to decline by 0.040% and both private and out-of-pocket health expenditure to increase by 0.001% and 0.030%, respectively. The effect of military expenditure on health outcomes exerts an increase in infant mortality by 0.008% but a reduction of 0.007% and 0.089% on life expectancy and maternal mortality rates in Africa. Also, we find that the inclusion of an interaction term of military expenditure and institutional quality only reverses the crowding-out effect on government health expenditure and not on private and out-of-pocket health expenditure in Africa. Similarly, for health outcomes, the favorable effect of the interaction term is only evident for increased life expectancy and reduced maternal mortality rates. We offer policy recommendations to improve fiscal spending on the health sector in Africa as a paramount measure to improve human capital development and provide areas for further empirical contributions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%