As geopolitical instability increases and new threats emerge, a number of countries are increasing their respective allocations for defence expenditure in order to take greater responsibility for their citizens in terms of defending and protecting their values and way of life. Small states such as Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia must evaluate certain economic, political, and strategic factors when increasing their respective defence expenditure. While they do tend to increase expenditure on national defence matters, budgetary constraints often force them to cut funding in some civilian domains or to increase their borrowing on international markets. Therefore, the security and defence of small states must be addressed in an integrated way, taking into account economic, social, and environmental factors. The aim of this article is to assess the relationships between defence expenditure and sustainable development indicators during the period between 2000 and 2018 in the Baltic states. The authors of this article aimed to determine which sustainable development indicators have a significant impact upon a country’s expenditure when it comes to defence matters. The study was conducted using econometric methods, including Spearman’s correlation analysis and Automatic Linear Modelling (ALM). The research results revealed some differences amongst the Baltic countries. In Lithuania, the employment rate and R&D personnel as a share of the active population demonstrated a significant impact upon defence expenditure. In Latvia, defence expenditure was found to be affected by disposable household income per capita and environmental taxes as a share of total tax revenue. In Estonia, defence expenditure was mainly influenced by disposable household income per capita and energy import dependency. The study’s findings may be used to ensure both the security of the country and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The aim of this research is to examine the dependence of economic growth on government spending by function in the Baltic countries – Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The author has used total expenditure and composition approaches to explore the relationship between the variables. The investigation covers the period from 1996 to 2020. The author has employed descriptive statistics and econometric techniques, including automatic linear modelling (ALM). The study's insights reveal that the growth of the Latvian and Estonian economies depends on general government spending. This dependence is similar in both countries, that is, 62.8% in Latvia and 66.5% in Estonia. In Lithuania, 57.7% of fluctuations in economic growth are explained by spending on social protection. In Latvia, the influence of spending on social protection and economic affairs amounts to 63.4% of economic growth. In Estonia, spending on social protection and health explains 78.1% of the fluctuations in economic growth. The findings of the study may be useful in ensuring a more efficient allocation of government finances in the Baltic states.

The paper has investigated the relationships between financial and economic development in the European Union countries using annual data over the period of 1998–2016. The authors have done this by looking at descriptive statistics and also by applying econometric methods. This study has combined different approaches prevailing in the scientific literature and contributed to understanding the importance of the interrelationship between the variables. The investigation has led to the conclusions as follows: (1) the countries with the middle GDP per capita indicators have demonstrated the highest level of financial development; (2) unidirectional causality running from real GDP to financial development has been detected in Denmark, Portugal and Latvia; (3) unidirectional causality running from financial development to real GDP has been found in Austria; (4) two-way causal relationships between financial and economic development have been detected in Luxembourg, France and United Kingdom; (5) the results of Finland, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia and Bulgaria have supported the neutrality approach. The research provides general insights and a better understanding to formulate the directions for sustainable economic development in the countries under consideration.

This paper aims at investigating military and demographic inter-linkages in the context of the Lithuanian sustainability. The investigation combines three important economic aspects such as demographic, military and sustainable development. The authors have revealed that demographic trends should be seen as a necessary conditions for ensuring the functioning of the military sector contributes to public security and sustainable development in general. Correlation and stepwise regression analysis, also Monte Carlo forecasting method have been applied for this purpose. Research results have revealed statistically significant interrelationship between military personnel as a share of total labour force and population growth rate, population median age, total fertility rate as well as birth rate. Moreover, Monte Carlo forecasting method allowed revealing for the next 10 years a steady slight increase in armed forces personnel, stable population growth rates, a rapid aging process and a slight decline of total fertility rate. Military and demographic estimations and future projections allow government to incorporate information into planning and sustainable development policy. The insights from this research may contribute to implementing the goals of sustainable development related to eradication of poverty, inequality, social exclusion, improvement in education, well-being and employment and tackling climate change. Keyword : military, demographic, sustainable development, Lithuania, trends

This paper explores the relationship between defence expenditure and government debt in small European Union countries that are members of NATO, such as Luxembourg, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, DRenmark, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The investigation used Eurostat data in relation to gross government debt, as well as NATO information regarding defence expenditure as a share of GDP and its distribution by main category for the period between 2005 and 2019. The authors applied descriptive statistics and methods of multivariate statistics: Spearman’s correlation, the ANOVA test, and Life tables. Taking into consideration the tendencies of variables in all examined countries, the results show that the share of defence expenditure in GDP correlates statistically significantly and negatively with government gross debt. Latvia, Slovakia, and Slovenia revealed statistically significant relationships between variables, while Luxembourg, Denmark and Lithuania insignificant. In Estonia, the relationship between variables is strong and positive. Additionally, the investigation shows that, whether for increasing defence expenditure or for stable or decreasing defence expenditure, the trajectories of government debt have no clear interrelation in explored countries. Therefore, the cause of government debt by means of defence expenditure alone can only be partially explained. The insights that were drawn from this study could be applied to government finance management processes, as well as to ensure both national security and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030.

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).