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- Title
Poverty, Political Freedom, and the Roots of Terrorism.
- Authors
Abadie, Alberto
- Abstract
This article challenges the view, based on empirical studies, that poverty creates terrorism. Using U.S. State Department data on transnational terrorist attacks, Alan B. Krueger, David D. Laitin, and James A. Piazza found no evidence to support that poverty has generated attacks. This theory stems from the fact that much of the modern-day transnational terrorism seems to generate from grievances against rich countries. In some cases terrorist groups may decide to attack property or nationals of rich countries in order to gain international publicity. Estimates suggest that political freedom has a non-monotonic effect on terrorism. This result is consistent with the observed increase in terrorism for countries in transition from authoritarian regimes to democracies. The results also show that certain geographic characteristics may favor the presence of terrorism.
- Subjects
TERRORISM; ECONOMIC history; POVERTY; INTERNATIONAL crimes; SUBVERSIVE activities; KRUEGER, Alan B., 1960-2019; LAITIN, David D.; PIAZZA, James A.
- Publication
American Economic Review, 2006, Vol 96, Issue 2, p50
- ISSN
0002-8282
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1257/000282806777211847