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Replication Data for: Free-riding in Alliances: Testing an Old Theory with a New Methodology (with Thomas Plumper), Conflict Management and Peace Science, 32 (3), 2015, pp. 247–268

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Replication Data for: Free-riding in Alliances: Testing an Old Theory with a New Methodology (with Thomas Plumper), Conflict Management and Peace Science, 32 (3), 2015, pp. 247–268
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/4RY8O1
 
Creator Neumayer, Eric
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description We revisit the old and well-established theory of free-riding in military alliances. Existing empirical
evidence infers free-riding from the larger military expenditures per gross domestic product
(GDP) of countries of larger GDP. Yet, larger countries have broader military and geostrategic
interests that result in larger defense burdens, thus creating an identification problem for existing
tests of free-riding behavior. We therefore develop alternative predictions that ignore differences
in the level of military spending and instead relate to growth in spending over time. The safety
level of smaller members of an alliance is affected, simultaneously, by changes to military spending
of the largest alliance member as well as by spending changes of the main enemy. Using the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as test case, we estimate country-specific response functions
of the smaller alliance members to growth in US military spending on the one hand and to
growth of Soviet spending (if in excess of US growth) on the other, covering the period 1956–
1988. Results from our quasi-spatial approach corroborate one part of the theory in that we find
the vast majority of the smaller NATO allies to be free-riders. However, our empirical evidence
flatly contradicts the other part of the free-riding theory: the extent of free-riding is not a function
of country size. Smaller allies free-ride, but the relatively larger of the smaller allies do not
free-ride any less than the relatively even smaller alliance partners.
 
Subject Social Sciences
 
Contributor Neumayer, Eric