Does Defence Spending and its Composition Affect Economic Growth in India?

Abstract

The article investigates the relationship between economic growth and defence expenditure in India from 1970–1971 to 2015–2016. By using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag and Toda-Yamamoto Granger Causality approach, the empirical results find that defence expenditure has a positive and significant impact on economic growth in India. The study also finds that capital defence expenditure has a positive and significant effect on economic growth, while revenue defence expenditure does not have any substantial influence on it. The causality test confirms a bidirectional causality between defence expenditure and economic growth, while it finds a unidirectional causality that runs from capital defence expenditure to economic growth. The study suggests that defence spending, especially capital defence spending, should be encouraged to enhance economic growth in the Indian economy. JEL Classification: H56, O40, C32.