Research Information System
Güvenlik Çalışmaları Dergisi, vol.24, no.1, pp.50-74, 2022 (TRDizin)
The relationship between macroeconomic indicators and defense expenditures has been extensively studied especially in developed countries. The goal of this study is to analyze the relationship between defense expenditures and some important macroeconomic indicators in Turkey for the period of 2000-2020. Unlike many other studies which utilizes only the SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) data, two data sets, SIPRI and the data prepared from Turkish budget data, were used in this study. For this period, the relationship between defense expenditures and macroeconomic indicators in Turkey was tested with Granger Causality Analysis with both data sets. According to the results of the analysis, a bidirectional relationship was found between defense expenditures (SIPRI) and economic growth in Turkey, while a unidirectional relationship was found between defense expenditures obtained from budget figures and economic growth. A unidirectional relationship was found between budget defense expenditures and gross domestic savings, and no relationship was found between defense expenditures and unemployment and foreign trade balance figures. The results are discussed with policy recommendations.