Warfare, Economic Development and Wellbeing

The paper sets out to analyse the relation between military spending, Warfare and some measures\r\nof Well-being, in the current context of globalisation and convergence processes. On the one hand,\r\ngrowth drivers are attributable to gross fixed capital formation, attraction of foreign direct investment\r\nand ability to export. On the other hand, military expenditures, once again rising in the Middle\r\nEast, North Africa and Central Europe, have negative effects on economic growth paths. The\r\naim of the current paper is to verify such trends with economic development as well as indicators\r\nof subjective Well-being and institutional development, through analyses of bivariate correlations\r\nand some econometric models. The effects of displacement of public welfare in relation to productive\r\ninvestment or social and educational expenditure represent clear constraints that hamper a\r\nbalanced and sustainable development and, in general, the social Well-being, as measured by new\r\nindicators of democracy level and happiness.