Evaluation of the Impacts of Military Regimes on the Economy: Multi-Country Evidence from the Sub-Sahara Africa

Abstract

The study evaluates the effects of military interventions on a selected number of economic indices in the Sub-Sahara African countries between 1960s and very early 1980s. To carry out the evaluation, I adopted the Before-After and Control Group approaches that have been conventionally used in evaluating the effects of IMF-sponsored economic programmes on the economic performances. The findings suggest that military regimes generally tend to reduce the capital formation ratio, domestic saving ratio, inflow of direct foreign investments, and the pace of economic growth, while increasing the share of government expenditure in the GDP, monetary growth, and rate of inflation, and in addition, generally tend to worsen both tha current account balance and overall balance of payment positions.