Naval military organizations and Brazilian municipalities economic growth

Abstract

Several papers use economic data to infer the impact of defense spending on economic growth. These papers can be divided into two groups: one that analyzes the impacts on the countries´ growth and the other that verifies whether the closure and realignment of the military bases would generate negative impacts on local economies. This study seeks to analyze if the expenditures with payment of civil and military employees of military bases (MB) of the Brazilian Navy influence economic growth for the Brazilian municipalities, once the presence of these MB would increase local income and, consequently, expand the demand for local goods and services. A panel data for the years 2000 and 2010 is used and the main results suggest that increases in these expenditures generate an increment in the GDP growth rate.