The Interplay between Military Expenditures and Economic Growth: The Case of East African Economies

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorMdoe Idi Jacksonen_US
dc.contributor.authorKimaita, Stanley Kinoti
dc.date.accessioned2023-08-08T13:39:43Z
dc.date.available2023-08-08T13:39:43Z
dc.date.issued2023
dc.descriptionA Research Project Submitted to the School of Business, Economics & Tourism, Department of Economic Theory in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Economics (Policy and Management) of Kenyatta University.en_US
dc.description.abstractOver the years, the East African Community (EAC) has experienced tremendous growth in defense spending in the advent of rising violent cross-border and domestic terrorism. The member states reported a cumulative rising share of their military expenditure in the total global military expenditure from 8.3% in the 1960s to 27.5%, in 2020. Concurrently, with a diminishing share of their global GDP from 30.7% to 21.5%. African share in the global military expenditure has revealed a 70% upsurge in the period 1970 - 2020. Irrefutably, peace and continued sustainable economic development are the prime agenda of all EAC countries. The continuous growth in military spending presents a new economic challenge as it competes against other public sector needs whose importance cannot be underscored. Using a mix of empirical strategies, this study sought to verify whether defense spending impacts economic growth in the case of the seven (7) EAC countries since their independence (1960 - 2020). This study aimed at complementing existing literature by further examining the effect of military expenditure on economic growth using the Engle and Granger (1987) two-step cointegration analysis to elucidate their long-run equilibrium relationship and the Granger tests to establish the direction of causality. The study relied on the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) annual data between 1960 - 2020 to collate military expenditure estimates, World Development Indicators (WDI), and the EAC Information Repository to collate data on economic growth. Founded on the empirical findings and the analysis, the study concluded that the EAC is a diverse region with varying levels of economic development. The results from the statistical analysis indicate that the countries included in the study exhibit variations in their GDP and military expenditure. Further, there is a one-way causal relationship between GDP and military spending in Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, and Congo (COD), but a two-way causal relationship between GDP and spending on defense in Kenya and Uganda. This implies that rising military spending in these nations follows economic development, with Kenya and Uganda having a favorable effect on economic growthen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipkenyatta universityen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/26648
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherKenyatta Universityen_US
dc.subjectMilitary Expendituresen_US
dc.subjectEconomic Growthen_US
dc.subjectEast African Economiesen_US
dc.titleThe Interplay between Military Expenditures and Economic Growth: The Case of East African Economiesen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
The Interplay between Military Expenditures and Economic.pdf
Size:
804.67 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Full text Thesis
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download
Collections
MST-Department of Applied Economics