The interactional impact of defense expenditure and arms importation on economic growth in Nigeria: An autoregressive approach

Little is done on the empirical analyses of the impact of defense expenditure on arms and economic growth.The few conducted concentrated on developed countries, which are exporters of arms.This study examines the short-run and long-run impact of arms importation on the economic growth in Nigeria, using auto regressive distributed lag model.Literature on defense expenditure and economic growth are often conflicting and inconclusive.These outcomes are due to the non-linear growth effects of defense and incorrect model specifications.The crucial growth effects of defense expenditure can be traced by properly controlling the interaction term.This paper examines the defense-arms interaction on Nigeria in the context of Aizeiman and Glick (2006) models.The result reveals that defense-arms interaction in Nigeria exerts negatively on the economic growth.It therefore recommends that defense R and D as well Defense Industrial Cooperation of Nigeria should be properly financed and managed for efficiency and self-reliability