Ortadoğu ve Kuzey Afrika Bölgesinde Askeri Harcamalar ve Ekonomik Özgürlük Arasındaki İlişki

Abstract

The relationship between military expenditures and economic growth hasbeen widely studied in the literature. However, there are no studies focusingon the relationship between military expenditures and economic freedom inthe literature. In countries with high levels of economic freedom, democraticregime transitions are more comfortable. Therefore, military expendituresare expected to decrease as potential internal turmoil, and external threatswill be reduced in countries with high economic freedom. This studyexamines the relationship between military expenditures and economicfreedom in 13 MENA countries (Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Israel,Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, andTurkey) during the period 1996-2018 by using panel data analysis. It wasfound that economic growth, tax burden, and trade freedom had a positiveimpact on military expenditures. It was also concluded that property rights,monetary freedom, government integrity, and investment freedom negativelyaffected military expenditures. Besides, it is understood that there is abidirectional causal relationship between military expenditures and taxburden, property rights, monetary freedom, government integrity, investmentfreedom, and business freedom. On the other hand, there is a unidirectionalcausality relationship from economic growth to military expenditures andfrom military expenditures to trade freedom.