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Many countries have embarked on decentralization as a way to mitigate separation tendencies. Even though decentralization could satisfy some separation tendencies, the central government might be unable or unwilling to award the localities the level of decentralization they require to stay in the union. This mismatch may give rise to domestic violence and internal conflict. We propose a simple two-stage model that combines the decentralization and domestic terrorism literature in a single structural model, which can be readily tested using existing data in the disciplines. As long as the actual decentralization level meets the unobserved desired value by the localities, there will be a high likelihood of observing a zero incidence of domestic terrorism. Otherwise, the incidents happen regularly with mitigating effects from decentralization. Our model also accounts for the left-censoring of the terrorism data at zero. We examine our model using 5-year interval panel data of more than 60 countries based on the information for 1970–2019. Our results indicate a strong negative and statistically significant relationship between fiscal decentralization and domestic terrorism events. One percent increase in fiscal decentralization is associated with a two to three percent decline in domestic terrorism incidents. The coefficients of the selection model and domestic terrorism model generally conform to the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing two alternative measures of state failure, we investigate how state weakness influences resident terrorist groups' survival. Theoretically, state failure favors resident terrorist groups' survival, while state territorial control fosters resident groups' termination until some control threshold. Empirically, we uncover a robust negative relationship between a country's weakness and its control of terrorism through the lens of the resident terrorist groups' survival prospects. The discovered relationship withstands a host of robustness tests – e.g., alternative estimates and samples. We apply an instrument designed to address endogeneity concerns. In particular, our novel instrument for failed states consists of the interaction between natural disasters and ethnic fractionalization. As a state's percentage of territorial control increases, resident terrorist groups are more prone to ending until some threshold control percent. Our analysis can guide counterterrorism policy by exploiting the nuanced theoretical determinants identified here that foster resident groups' termination in failing states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from statements by politicians, the media, policy analysts, and researchers, the current study identifies nine myths associated with terrorism and the practice of counterterrorism. We focus on those myths that have special policy relevance since the four al-Qaida hijackings on September 11, 2001, and the ensuing heightened security concern. Many of those myths generated research articles that, at times, come to contradictory conclusions. Our goal is to provide recent statistics and a literature evaluation to sort out such contradictory results. In the case of the alleged macroeconomic consequences of terrorism to a typical country, we supply updated estimations. Throughout our presentation, we draw from the post-2001 literature or statistical evidence. Often, empirical methods and procedures have evolved to a point wheremore clear-cut and robust findings are now available through better identification and advanced estimation procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article applies principal component analysis to decompose transnational terrorism during 1970-2007 into common (worldwide) and idiosyncratic (country-specific) factors. Regardless of alternative thresholds and filtering procedures, a single common factor is related to individual countries' transnational terrorist events. Based on a conventional criterion, Lebanon's transnational terrorism is the key common driver of global transnational terrorist incidents. With a more conservative criterion, four additional countries--United States, Germany, Iraq, and the United Kingdom--are core countries in explaining cross-sectional correlation across 106 countries' transnational terrorism. The analysis shows that there is a marked cross-sectional dependence among transnational terrorist incidents worldwide. (JEL C38, H56), I. INTRODUCTION Ever since the skyjackings of four wide-bodied planes on September 11, 2001 (henceforth 9/11), economists have displayed a strong research interest in terrorism. Theoretical and empirical papers have [...]

It is widely believed that empowering women via various material means increases women's outside options and, thereby, makes them less vulnerable to intimate partner violence. However, the effect of such empowerment on domestic violence could be subtle particularly in countries with pre-existing high tolerance to violence, weak law enforcement and male institutional domination. Using cross-sectional household-level survey data for Latin American countries, we test the effect of property ownership by women on domestic violence. The results show that a woman's sole property ownership is not associated with less domestic violence against her; sometimes the correlation is even positive. However, married women who co-own the property are less likely to face domestic abuse by husbands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6435.2008.00409.x Byline: Khusrav Gaibulloev (1), Todd Sandler (2) Abstract: SUMMARY This paper presents panel estimates for 18 Western Europe countries to ascertain the separate impacts of domestic and transnational terrorism on income per capita growth for 1971-2004. The paper merges domestic and transnational terrorist events in order to attribute growth impacts to the two broad categories of terrorism. Each additional transnational terrorist incident per million persons reduces economic growth by about 0.4 percentage points. Domestic terrorism has a much smaller effect on growth that is about half this size. Terrorism's negative impact on growth is related to the scale of terrorism in the sample countries in order to give a better idea of what is the average consequence in most sample countries. These negative impacts are shown to stem from domestic and transnational terrorism's adverse influence on investment shares. Counterterrorism efforts also augment government spending, which crowds out growth-promoting investment. We show that the pathway by which domestic and transnational terrorism influences growth differs. For example, transnational terrorism works more through the crowding out of investment, while domestic terrorism works more through the increase in government expenditure increases. A host of sensitivity tests are performed to support our empirical model. Policy recommendations conclude the paper - e.g., measures to curb transnational terrorist attacks have a higher economic payoff than similar measures to reduce domestic terrorist events. Since transnational terrorism has a larger impact on income per capita growth than does domestic terrorism, West European efforts to curb transnational terrorism will have a greater economic dividend than efforts to limit domestic terrorism. Author Affiliation: (1)School of Economic, Political & Policy Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080-3021, USA (2)University of Texas at Dallas