Poverty is a social problem faced by Indonesian people until today. This could be seen from high level poverty in Indonesia which was fluctuating from year to year.

PurposeImproving the quality of life of the masses is the prime objective of all policymakers of both developed and developing countries. However, the determinants of improved quality of life are not well explored in the empirical literature. This study has, therefore, tried to identify the determinants of quality of life by focusing on military expenditures.Design/methodology/approachPanel data from 1990 to 2017 are collected from internationally reliable sources for the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN hereafter) member countries, and suitable econometric techniques are employed to estimate the designed models.FindingsThe results show that military expenditures have affected the quality of life of the ASEAN member countries both negatively and significantly. Similarly, the inflation rate has also negatively affected the quality of life. In terms of magnitude, the negative impact of the inflation rate on quality of life has exceeded than the impact of military expenditures. On the other hand, trade openness, per capita income, urbanization and government expenditures have played a positive and significant role in improving the quality of life in the ASEAN region. Moreover, it is found that the positive impact of per capita income on quality of life is highest among other determinants.Originality/valueThis study provided comprehensive evidence about the relationship between military expenditures and quality of life in the ASEAN context. Consequently, the ASEAN member economies will benefit a lot from the results of this study.