Recent Trends in LDC Military Expenditures

Abstract

Several alarming and largely ignored trends in the size and structure of military expenditure of less developed countries (LDCs) have appeared during the past quarter century. New, fuller, and better data series permit us to discern four of these recent trends sufficiently clearly to call them “stylized facts†of the contemporary development process: (1) LDC defense expenditures have been rising as a fraction of GDP; (2) the capital cost component of this spending appears to have been rising relative to the operating cost component; (3) the portion of the LDC population serving in the armed forces has been increasing; and (4) LDC military wages appear to have been rising relative to civilian wages.