The current developments in the NATO countries suffering from deficit in public finances intensify pressures for cutting military expenditure which is noticeable in the NATO countries as well where only a small group of countries fulfils the recommended 2% of GDP investment in military expenditure. This paper employs the Granger causality test and change point analysis to verify the theoretical relationship between the economic determinants of military expenditure and the level of military expenditure for chosen NATO member countries (France, Germany and Great Britain) over the period 1971 – 2012. Data were selected from the SIPRI and OECD databases. The findings suggest that defence spending in France, Germany and Great Britain is not determined by the economic growth.
Eighty five European NUTS 2 regions of 6 European countries: Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are considered in the paper. Attention is focused on the assessment of their competitiveness. Data were obtained from the Statistical Office of the European Communities. Four indicators of competitiveness (i.e. quality of labour forces and innovations, labour market, economic activity and infrastructure) were determined by means of the factor analysis. The factor scores of indicated factors in the regions were divided into groups by means of multivariate classification techniques (cluster analysis and classification trees). The outcome of the analysis is the classification of groups of regions with similar competitiveness factors.
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