Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija

This paper has aimed to consider how government expenditure contributes to economic growth by focusing on both the level and composition of government spending, in connection to the dynamics of GDP per capita growth. The investigation covers the period from 1997 to 2017. The authors have applied total expenditure approach analyzing interrelationships between government expenditure and economic growth and division approach examining and comparing the distributions of government expenditure in the selected European Union countries. The authors have applied descriptive statistics, the Pearson’s correlation, intensity rate of structural changes and Finger-Kreinin indicator. The findings have suggested the following: 1) there is no evidence on the relationship between general government expenditure and economic development in the European Union countries; 2) the countries with a greater proportion of productive spending, such as Cyprus, Greece, Lithuania, Hungary, Estonia, Slovakia have a low GDP per capita indicator. Economically strong countries, such as Denmark, France and Sweden have relatively low level of productive expenditure; 3) economically stronger countries have more stable compositions of government expenditure than economically weaker ones; 4) the countries with a similar real GDP per capita have been characterized by more similar government spending structures. As the economic gap between countries grows, divergence in allocation of government spending increases. The findings of this research could provide important guideline for the managing of government expenditure in the European Union countries. Moreover, it can serve as a guideline to a public budget management in the countries under consideration.

The aim of this paper is to identify, design and classify general instruments applicable to stabilize development in defense spending as one of the decisive prerequisites of a long-term maintenance and development of national defense capabilities. Based on analyses of approaches implemented in the former Czechoslovakia and later in the Czech Republic as well as in other selected European countries, the paper submits a set of measures leading to defense spending stabilization. To gather data regarding practice in individual countries a structured interviews and a questionnaire survey have been carried out, addressing subject matter experts in selected European countries. Result of this research have proven that in a number of countries the issue of defense spending stabilization has never been addressed. Based on experience of those countries that have implemented certain measures of defense spending stabilization, it seems that the optimum approach to defense spending stabilization consists of instruments that are anchored in national legislation and that enable an overall fixation (reservation of certain part of government incomes for the purpose of armed forces maintenance and modernization).

This article aims to find how government expenditure for the sectors of defense, public order and safety influence the economic situation and national security in Lithuania. The problem how government expenditure for public safety relates to statistics of national security and economic situation in the country is analyzed in the article. The fundamental aspects of the structure of public expenditure and relationship between major defense, public order and economic indicators are analyzed in the article. Analysis is made using self-made figures and counted coefficients that show the strength of the relation of the analyzed factors. Resulting conclusions give an answer how government expenditure affects economic situation and safety of the country.