GELİŞMİŞ VE GELİŞMEKTE OLAN ÜLKELERDE SAVUNMA HARCAMALARININ İKTİSADİ BÜYÜME ÜZERİNDE ETKİSİ: G20 ÜLKELERİ İÇİN MUKAYESELİ BİR ANALİZ

The relationship between defense expenditures and economic growth has been examined in many studies that have reached quite different results. In this study, the sample of G20 countries was divided into two parts as deveyoped and developing countries, and the effect of defense expenditures on economic growth is investigated for the two panel data sets. In this study, the production function in the growth model of Barro (1990) is used for the economic theoretical basis. According to this function, the effect of each sub-item of total public expenditure on economic growth is different. After econometric analyses carried out with methods taking into account the problem of cross-section dependence, no statistically significant relationship between defense expenditure and economic growth was found in deveyoped G20 countries. Nevertheless, defense spending in developing G20 countries, including Turkey, has been found to have a positive effect on economic growth. However, the findings indicate that this result should not be evaluated alone. Because the negative impact of total public expenditures on economic growth is nearly twice as much in developing countries compared to developed ones. Since defense expenditures are also included in the total government spending, the observed positive effect on economic growth should be interpreted carefully.