Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija

Contemporary studies show that military power depends not only on manpower, weapons, or resources, but in many cases, success on the battlefield is determined by the potential of human capital, including knowledge, skills, competences, and other capacities [1; 2]. Using a cost-based approach, the author focuses on the input side assessing military human capital potential in the context of defence expenditure – economic development nexus in the Baltic countries, such as Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The investigation covers the period between 2004 and 2020. Defence expenditure on personnel has been used as a proxy for military human capital potential, and real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita as a proxy for economic development. Research is carried out using econometric methods, including Spearman’s correlation analysis and Automatic Linear Modelling (ALM). The research results reveal that investments in military personnel have significant and positive impact on economic development in the Baltic states. Defence expenditure on personnel explains 63.7 percent of variation in real GDP per capita in Lithuania, 71.3 percent in Latvia, and 63.4 percent in Estonia. The author hopes that the findings of the investigation will extend the scope of research across the Baltic States and will be useful for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 8, economic g rowth).

The paper has investigated the patterns of defence expenditure in the Baltic countries, such as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia during the period of 2004-2018. Distribution of defence expenditure by main category has been analysed and the main tendencies have been provided. The author has done this by applying total expenditure and decomposition approaches. Firstly, the author has calculated the intensity rate of defence expenditure‘s structural changes in order to assess which country’s defence spending structure has been more dynamic over the period analysed. Secondly, Finger-Kreinin indicator has been used to compare defence expenditure distributions and determine their dissimilarities among the countries under consideration. The author believes that the research highlights key structural trends of defence expenditure and could be helpful for policy makers.

The paper aims to test the impact of tax structure on economic growth in the localities of Vietnam. In the paper, it is assumed, that tax structure is measured through the annual growth rate of tax revenue of 63 provinces and cities of Vietnam in terms of three groups: consumption tax (CT), income tax (IT), and property tax (PT) during the period of 11 years from 2007 to 2017; the research data was collected from the General Department of Taxation of Vietnam. Economic growth is a dependent variable, represented by the annual growth rate of the gross domestic product of each locality with the data source from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam. With the regression analysis according to the GMM method, the research results showed that consumption tax (CT) and income tax (IT) had a positive impact on economic growth in the localities of Vietnam, and property tax (PT) was not statistically significant. In addition, the study has achieved great success by identifying the consumption tax components that had significantly positive impacts on economic growth (GDP), namely export and import taxes (CT1), value added tax (CT2); meanwhile, excise tax (CT3) had a negative effect on economic growth (GDP). For income tax, personal income tax (IT2) also had a positive effect on economic growth (GDP). The research results are the first empirical evidence in Vietnam on the impact of the tax structure on economic growth in the localities, which is important for the Government of Vietnam to have a basis to manage tax policies in order to stimulate economic growth in a sustainable manner

Economic growths are often used to measure the development of a country. Thus, the economic growth is what every economy tries to achieve for good of everyone as a whole. In the other hand education, health and employment are one the most important tool for the economy growth. Thailand as developing countries concern about the economy growth and done an investment in through it. The general objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between education, health, employment and economic growth in Thailand from 1988 to 2017. The econometric method is used to examine the relationship between education, health, employment and economic growth. Unit root test indicate that all of the above variables are I (1). Johensen’s test was conducted to see the long run relationship between these variables. Meanwhile the relationship is test by using Ordinary Least Square and the Granger Causality test. The relationship between education with the economic growth are examine by using the literacy rate as education proxy variable. The health variable is examining by using the infant mortality rate, life expectancy and crude death rate with the GDP and the employment are examine by using the total employment rate with the GDP. As conclusion the results shows the positive relationship between the three variables with the economic growth and suggestion to the Thailand economic to do more investments in this variable. The findings of this study can be used to generate concrete policy reform suggestion and also used as guideline or example for other developing countries.

The prime objective of the current study is to examine the influence of infrastructure of transportation on economic growth for various countries in ASEAN. This influence differs in terms of administrative status and quality of infrastructure across the counties. GDP has been used as an economic growth measure in terms of per worker along with various kinds of infrastructure of transportation for years 2002–2017. Therefore, a short model has been incorporated with capital stock of railways and roads. Two variables have been incorporated to differentiate rods with different covering and quality. In the next step, the administrative status of roads has been distinguished. The results have revealed difficulty in interpretation because of the problem of endogeneity and reverse causality. Therefore, the research model was modified by including the lag values of variables of infrastructure of transportation for getting robust estimates. The unit root test has been performed and first differences in model ere used to obtain stationary time series. It was found that GRP per worker is greatly influenced by overall roads stock. This is because of the use of such roads for large traffic load. The regional growth of economy is greatly influenced by the light covering roads rather than national roads of similar quality/covering. The influence of local government’s quality was controlled on development of economy. The turnout of voters was used as proxy variable for the local government’s quality. It was found that the influence of infrastructure of transportation stock in the areas (where government is of better quality) has not much influence on GRP per worker. Different kinds of infrastructure of transportation have been shown by this research being the drivers of growth of economy in. The administrative status and quality of covering roads creates an influence on the growth of economy. Based on the findings of study, the following recommendations have been made. There is need to develop national roads to improve the economic performance. Further, there is need to improve the quality of countries. However, the influence of infrastructure transportation is high where the government has low quality and overall capital stock influence is high where the government is of good quality (Crescenzi, Cataldo, & Rodríguez, 2016). In future, researches can be conducted by focusing on the influences of other variables of infrastructure including electricity lines, supply of water and for long time periods. The future studies can work on investigating the network effect of transportation infrastructure in ASEAN.

The prime objective of the current study is to investigate the total sovereign debt on the economic growth of Thailand. Since domestic debt is considered to be an economic growth stimulator particularly during the period of recession, therefore, its instruments are intended to analyze in this research. In a country, the lack of funds may negatively influence economic growth, therefore, most countries like to use external debt to finance its expenditures, such as Thailand. This situation can be improved by focusing on these countries developmental research. In Thailand, the information scarcity regarding domestic debt acts as a policy constraint while designing an effective domestic debt mobilization policy. Thus, the present study predominantly aims to investigate the domestic debt effects on Thailand economic growth. The study has examined the domestic debt effects on the economic growth, during 1998-2018. The variables used in this study are extracted from the previous literature and the theoretical framework used in this study. The key variables analyzed are Treasury bills, Government securities, and Investment issues, not forgetting the loans mainly housing loans fund, market loans of Thailand. The study has used the Johansen and Juselius co-integration approach to examine the long run relationship while ECM approach was used to see the speed of adjustment in the short run. Furthermore, we have conducted the Lagrange Multiplier test to all variables to check the presence of autocorrelation. The results show that there is no autocorrelation in the variables. For the instrument of Government securities, we have found that all the variables which are financial sector, social security institutions, insurance companies, and financial sector show a statistically significant result in long run analysis. On the other hand, short run analysis based on ECM model shows that social security institution, insurance companies, financial sector and foreign holders turn to be significant while public sector show insignificant results. The result for ECM also shows that the model is well adjusted in the short run.

This paper examines the impact of public spending on ASEAN-5 countries economic development. The purpose of this study is to provide evidence, reference and contribute to the knowledge about government spending and economic growth. This study involves ASEAN-5 countries. The countries are Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia. The countries are chosen because there is a lack of study of government expenditure for ASEAN-5 countries using panel data. The data covers from year 1990 to 2014. The data is retrieved from the World Development Indicators (World Bank). The dependent variable is gross domestic product (GDP). GDP is used to measure economic growth. The main independent variable is government expenditure. The other independent variables are gross capital formation, portfolio investment, labor, trade, total reserve and gross savings. A clear understanding about inter-linkages between government spending and economic growth will help the government in making better decision for the country. As ASEAN countries have responsibility for ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint 2025 to meet its objectives, ASEAN governments are expected to effectively monitor the public spending as fiscal instrument in stimulating economic growth. Government expenditure may become unproductive if misallocating and using it in excess. From this study, there is evidence that government expenditure has impact on economic growth. Future research is expected to expand the investigation to other composition of government spending such as education, defense and infrastructure expenditures instead of using general government final consumption expenditures.

The prime aim of the study was to investigate the impact of the financial inflows on the economic growth of ASEAN economies. Meanwhile, the study has examined the moderating role of currency crisis in the relationship between financial inflows and the economic growth of ASEAN countries. The study has employed the panel data methodology to achieve the research objectives. Theoretically and empirically it seems that foreign capital inflows have different possible effects on growth and development performance of an economy. If foreign capital inflows are used in an efficient and productive manner then, they will promote country ‘s growth performance. If foreign capital inflows are used in unproductive manner then they will not contribute in a long run, their impact on economic development will only for a short run. Furthermore, the financial crisis (currency crisis) also have a significant influence in the attraction of foreign capital inflows. These financial crises effect the flow of foreign capital inflows among the countries. The results suggest that the flow of workers ‘remittances in the country has significant positive impact on economic growth. Moreover, the banking and systemic crisis hurt the relationship between REM and EG. Worker remittances are considered as a boon to the countries. It has a positive association with the economic growth and acts a stabilizer during the financial crisis. To ensure the effective inflows of the remittance the government should encourage that remittance should be transferred through formal channels, this can be done by giving cost effective financial services to the remitter, linking the remittance transfer with mobile networks and banks that charge low prices.

The general objective of this study is to estimate the relationship between electricity consumption, economic performance and the price of electricity in four sectors namely the industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural by using the panel data approach on leading ASEAN countries. The present study intends to contribute significantly to the existing literature by presenting a comprehensive approach of the issue of electricity consumption in Thailand. The information of electricity consumption in the industrial, commercial, agricultural and mining sectors is essential to understand the magnitude of the sectors’ sensitivity to change with respect to GDP and electricity price. Moreover, real electricity price is incorporated in this study to provide a more consistent result. The findings are important for researchers and academicians by providing a better knowledge of sectoral electricity demand to permit better regulatory decisions in order to facilitate economic efficiency. Apparently for the policy makers, it will be possible that the approach of this study could be useful as a guideline to facilitate the adoption of a more appropriate model for electricity demand management as well as restructuring the electricity sectors. Furthermore, the findings of this study will be helpful in the formulation of effective energy and pricing policies in order to encourage consumers towards the efficient use of energy for the future of sustainable energy and development.

This research study has given important implications for regulators through elaborating the association between economic growth, financial openness among the five member countries of ASEAN including Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. An insight has been provided about the relation of economic growth and trade openness from the practical aspect in ASEAN economies. Therefore, the policy makers are supported through this information to develop, overview, and revise the existing regulations and policies of financial openness. This research study has made significant contributions through analyzing the association between economic growth and financial openness from the theoretical aspect. The study has argued that the current literature is extended by this study through focusing on the developing economies of ASEAN. Banking sector is a crucial institution for any economy and economic growth is negatively influenced through collapse of the banking activities. Further, financial system comes at risk through financial openness, but it has a considerable role in the development of economies. The financial system liberalization is the main factor, which drives economic growth among the ASEAN countries. There is need for the policy makers to review and alter the existing regulations of financial openness.