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Education, Poverty, Political Violence and Terrorism: Is There a Causal Connection?

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Author Info

  • Alan B. Krueger

    (Princeton University and NBER)

  • Jitka Maleckova

    (Charles University)

Abstract

The paper investigates whether there is a causal link between poverty or low education and participation in politically motivated violence and/or terrorist activities. After presenting a discussion of theoretical issues, we review evidence on the determinants of hate crimes, which are closely related to terrorism. This literature finds that the occurrence of hate crimes is largely independent of economic conditions. Next we analyze data on support for attacks against Israeli targets from public opinion polls conducted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in December 2001. These polls indicate that support for violent attacks does not decrease among those with higher education and higher living standards. The core contribution of the paper is a statistical analysis of the determinants of participation in Hezbollah militant activities in Lebanon in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The evidence that we have assembled suggests that having a living standard above the poverty line or a secondary school or higher education is positively associated with participation in Hezbollah. We also find that Israeli Jewish settlers who terrorized Palestinians in the West Bank in the early 1980s were overwhelmingly from high paying occupations. Although our results are tentative and exploratory, they suggest that neither poverty nor education has a direct, causal impact on politically motivated violence and terrorism. The conclusion speculates on why economic conditions and education are largely unrelated to participation in, and support for, terrorism.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies. in its series Working Papers with number 203.

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Date of creation: May 2002
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Handle: RePEc:pri:rpdevs:203

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  1. Alan B. Krueger & Jorn-Steffen Pischke, 1995. "A Statistical Analysis of Crime Against Foreigners in Unified Germany," Working papers 95-15, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
  2. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2000. "Are Recessions Good For Your Health?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 115(2), pages 617-650, May.
  3. Richard B. Freeman, 1996. "Why Do So Many Young American Men Commit Crimes and What Might We Do about It?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 25-42, Winter.
  4. Manski, Charles F & Lerman, Steven R, 1977. "The Estimation of Choice Probabilities from Choice Based Samples," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(8), pages 1977-88, November.
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Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. The rational terrorist
    by Chris Blattman in Chris Blattman on 2008-01-16 17:23:00
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Cited by:
  1. Joshua D. Angrist & Adriana Kugler, 2005. "Rural Windfall or a New Resource Curse? Coca, Income, and Civil Conflict in Colombia," NBER Working Papers 11219, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  2. Konstantinos Drakos & Andreas Gofas, 2006. "In Search Of The Average Transnational Terrorist Attack Venue," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 73-93.
  3. Matthew A. Gentzkow & Jesse M. Shapiro, 2004. "Media, Education and Anti-Americanism in the Muslim World," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(3), pages 117-133, Summer.
  4. Denis Larocque & Genevieve Lincourt & Michel Normandin, 2010. "Macroeconomic Effects Of Terrorist Shocks In Israel," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 21(4), pages 317-336.
  5. Hajj, Mandana & Panizza, Ugo, 2009. "Religion and education gender gap: Are Muslims different?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 337-344, June.
  6. Tavares, Jose, 2004. "The open society assesses its enemies: shocks, disasters and terrorist attacks," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 1039-1070, July.
  7. Eli Berman & David Laitin, 2005. "Hard Targets: Theory and Evidence on Suicide Attacks," NBER Working Papers 11740, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  8. Jain, Sanjay & Mukand, Sharun W., 2004. "The economics of high-visibility terrorism," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 479-494, June.
  9. Carlos Lapuerta & Juan Benavides & Sonia Jorge, 2003. "Regulation and Competition in Mobile Telephony in Latin America," Research Department Publications 1001, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
  10. Blomberg, S. Brock & Hess, Gregory D. & Orphanides, Athanasios, 2004. "The macroeconomic consequences of terrorism," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 1007-1032, July.

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