The persistence of global terrorism

Abstract

This study investigates persistence of global terrorism in a panel of 163 countries for the period 2010 to 2015. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments.The following findings are established. First, persistence in terrorism is a decreasing function of income levels because it consistently increases from high income (through upper middle income) to lower middle income countries. Second, compared to Christian-oriented countries, terrorism is more persistent in Islam-oriented nations. Third, landlocked countries also reflect a higher level of persistence relative to their coastal counterparts. Fourth, Latin American countries show higher degrees of persistence when compared with Middle East and North African (MENA) countries. Fifth, the main determinants of the underlying persistence are political instability and weapons import. The results are discussed to provide answers to four main questions which directly pertain to the reported findings. These questions centre on why comparative persistence in terrorism is based on income levels, religious orientation, landlockedness and regions. JEL Classification: C52; D74; F42; K42; O38

Governance and the capital flight trap in Africa

“…2 The capital flight trap can be defined as persistence in capital flight whereby past capital flight positively affects future capital flight. The conception and definition of the capital flight trap is consistent with contemporary literature on persistence in macroeconomic phenomena in which hysteresis in macroeconomic phenomena is apparent when past values of macroeconomic phenomena have a positive incidence on future values of the corresponding macroeconomic phenomena, notably: persistence in terrorism (Asongu, 2019) and inequality (Tchamyou, 2020a). In the attendant persistence literature, one lag is enough to capture past information.…”

Drivers and Persistence of Death in Conflicts: Global Evidence

“…Though some of these conflicts are not in the sampled periodicity, there are recurrent pockets of political unrest across the region. The relative importance of SSA in political instability and violence is summarized by Asongu (2014b): "seven of the nine cases of total chaos and 1 Another strand of the literature that has used the same dataset but has focused on different problem statements includes studies focusing on: the persistence of terrorism (Asongu, 2020) and incarcerations (Asongu, 2019); persistence of weapons (Asongu, Uduji & Okolo-Obasi, 2020a); contemporary drivers of global tourism (Asongu, Nnanna, Biekpe & Acha-Anyi, 2019); the right to life (Asongu & Nwachukwu, 2019) and the murder or homicide epidemic (Asongu & Acha-Anyi, 2019a). This study departs from the attendant studies by focusing on drivers and persistence of death in conflicts around the world.…”

“… 1 Another strand of literature that has used the same data set but focused on different problem statements includes studies on the persistence of terrorism (Asongu 2020), incarcerations (Asongu 2019), persistence of weapons (Asongu, Uduji, and Okolo-Obasi 2020a), contemporary drivers of global tourism (Asongu et al 2019), and the murder or homicide epidemic (Asongu and Acha-Anyi 2019). …”

Drivers and Persistence of Death in Conflicts: Global Evidence

“…Though some of these conflicts are not in the sampled periodicity, there are recurrent pockets of political unrest across the region. The relative importance of SSA in political instability and violence is summarized by Asongu (2014b): "seven of the nine cases of total chaos and 1 Another strand of the literature that has used the same dataset but has focused on different problem statements includes studies focusing on: the persistence of terrorism (Asongu, 2020) and incarcerations (Asongu, 2019); persistence of weapons (Asongu, Uduji & Okolo-Obasi, 2020a); contemporary drivers of global tourism (Asongu, Nnanna, Biekpe & Acha-Anyi, 2019); the right to life (Asongu & Nwachukwu, 2019) and the murder or homicide epidemic (Asongu & Acha-Anyi, 2019a). This study departs from the attendant studies by focusing on drivers and persistence of death in conflicts around the world.…”