Does Disparity in Income and Consumption Ever Incite Terrorism in Africa?

Abstract

Does disparity in income and consumption incite terrorism in Africa? To answer this important question, we investigate the empirical linkages between inequality and terrorism by separately regressing income and consumption inequalities on four indicators of terrorism: domestic, transnational, unclear, and total over the period 1980–2012. Employing a negative binomial regression across a panel dataset covering 46 African economies, the following findings are established. First, both income and consumption inequalities have decreasing impacts on all terrorism measures—with the exception of uncertain terrorism (the impact of which is negligible). Second, both income and consumption inequalities exert more statistical influence on transnational terrorism than domestic terrorism. Third, income inequality exerts more statistical weight on terrorism measures than consumption inequality across the model specifications. Last, the non-trivial impact of confounding variables—such as the lagged value of terrorism, surface areas, and conflicts—are validated across the terrorism models. In line with these empirical outcomes, policy implications and suggestions for further studies are offered.

Note From the Editor:

“…Our second article is one of the best pieces on terrorism I have read in years, despite the fact that submissions to many political science journals in this area have remained constant for almost two decades. Of those that made publication with WAJ , a few already stand out (see Ajide and Alimi 2021; Bardos 2016; Hardy 2019). In “Terrorism and Right‐Party Vote Shares in Legislative Elections” (Hunter, Robbins, and Ginn 2021), the authors examine how terrorist attacks influence political behavior, specifically questioning the assumption that increased terrorist events increase the vote share for right‐wing parties.…”