Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/250631 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 14970
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
To better understand potential relationships between income and terrorism, we study data for 1,527 subnational regions in 75 countries between 1970 and 2014. Results consistently imply an inverted U-shape that remains robust to accounting for a comprehensive set of region-level covariates, region- and time-fixed effects, as well as estimating an array of alternative specifications. The threat of terrorism systematically rises as low-income polities become richer, peaking at an income level of about US$12,800 per capita (in constant 2005 PPP US$), but then falls consistently above that level. This pattern emerges for domestic and transnational terrorism alike. Peaks in the income-terrorism relationship differ by perpetrator ideology. Thus, alleviating poverty per se may first exacerbate terrorism, contrary to much of the proposed recipes advocated since 9/11.
Subjects: 
subnational income
subnational terrorism
domestic terrorism
transnational terrorism
terror group ideology
JEL: 
D74
O11
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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