Economic underpinnings of violent extremism: A cross country exploration of repeated survey data

This paper attempts to identify the economic underpinnings of the support for acts of violent extremism (VE). We explore some demographic and economic characteristics of individuals who express support for acts of violent extremism (VE) by using an extensive cross-country multi-year survey dataset ranging from 2007 to 2014. A growing body of empirical research has focused on examining the various socio-economic underpinnings of violent extremism. The results have been inconclusive, at times contradictory and often based on limited set of case studies or smaller single time period cross-section datasets. In this study we use information on a little over forty-eight thousand individuals in 12 countries to evaluate the connections between socio-economic status and support for extremism. While the impact of the socio-economic characteristics on support for violence remains inconclusive in this analysis, we do find interesting and significant results when we interact individual economic status variables with the overall economic growth of the country. Unemployment status and having lower levels of education have significant impacts on the likelihood of support for VE when interacted with country level growth rate. We conclude that inequality or a feeling of being left out-being unemployed, in higher growth countries might be the key to understanding the economic underpinnings of violent extremism.