ABSTRACT
Defence budgets provide valuable information on a nation’s defence choices. They show its willingness to spend on defence and the allocation of budgets between equipment and personnel and between each of the armed forces. Not all nations publish information on their military spending. Any economic analysis of defence budgets involves matters of definition and measurement, data availability and comparability between nations. The format of defence budgets in terms of input or output budgets is important: typically and mistakenly, it is assumed that inputs equal outputs. Various types of defence budgets exist and are assessed. Five case studies are presented from Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the UK and the USA.
