Defense Budgets in the Post-Cold War Era: A Spatial Econometrics Approach

Presenter: Mr. Karl Skogstad, PhD. candidate – Queen’s University Examines the determinants of national defense budgets in the post-Cold War era using a spatial econometric framework. Using data for 124 countries over a 16 year time period, examines spatial relationships in defense spending to investigate how countries account for the military spending of other countries when setting their budgets. Using specially developed weighting matrices, the regression results indicate that defense budgets are positively spatially correlated. These results provide support for the use of external” factors when examining defense budgets over this time period. The importance of a country’s spatial location when setting its budget is further examined through the identification of regions of high and low defense spending.

More information at: http://www.uregina.ca/events/defense-budgets-in-the-post-cold-war-era-a-spatial-econometrics-approach