Military Expenditure and Economic Growth: Evidence from Nigeria

The impact of military expenditure on economic growth has continued to be a subject of debate in the literature. In several African countries, military expenditure has been on the increase in the last few decades making it imperative to explore the impact of military expenditure on the growth of the economy. This study investigates the relationship between military expenditure and economic growth in Nigeria using annual time series data from 1981 – 2017. In achieving this objective, the study adopted a simple growth model that incorporates military expenditure as a share of government expenditure for the period of study. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) estimation technique was used in testing the relationship between the variables in the model. The result of the study shows that there is a significant positive long-run relationship between military expenditure and economic growth.