Abstract:

It is very important to examine the relationship between the increase in current defense expenditures and the basic economic indicators of the countries. In this study, starting from this context, the relationship between defense expenditures, which is an important item of public expenditures for the Turkish economy, and growth, one of the most basic indicators of the economy, has been examined. It has been analyzed whether defense expenditures are the cause of economic growth by using the variables of real gross domestic product and defense expenditures per capita in the 1960-2020 period of the Turkish economy. In the study, the long-term relationship between the variables was tested with the ARDL (2001) bounds test approach. In line with the results obtained, the Toda-Yamamoto (2012) causality test was applied. The findings show that defense spending is a cause of economic growth. However, there is no causal relationship from economic growth to defense expenditures. According to the results obtained, it is thought that the change in defense expenditures affects the economic growth with the phenomenon of creating employment by supporting the new technological formation in addition to the existing equipment and expenses..

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