Defense Spending and Unemployment Rates

An Empirical Analysis Disaggregated by Race and Gender

Bibliographic Data

ID2813152
AuthorsJohn D Abell (Randolph College, corresponding author)
Year1992
Volume51
Issue1
Pages27-42
Publication date1992-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Economics and Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9246 • E-ISSN: 1536-7150
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1536-7150.1992.tb02504.x
OpenAlexW1585503850
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited17

Empirical evidence is provided, using vectorautoregressive techniques, that the employment impacts of defense spending are not equally distributed among racial and gender lines and across time. While increases in defense spending were generally found to be associated with increases in each of the unemployment rates, in the 1980s, it was observed that black males were most severely impacted by such spending, while white males were least severely impacted. It is hypothesized that this finding is consistent with a military industrial complex that has become increasingly complex and which focuses more on high tech weapons procurement than on personnel and maintenance concerns. In contrast, non-defense spending increases were associated with unemployment rate decreases in all categories. However, in terms of the distribution of these "favorable" impacts, white males benefitted the most and black males benefitted the least

Biology · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Labour economics · Procurement · Unemployment · Unemployment rate · White (mutation) · Defense, Military, and Policy Studies · Economic Growth and Productivity · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth

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