An Uphill Battle: The Relationship Between Geography and Terrorism

Regarding the effect of geography on social violent behavior, this study introduces the idea that Geographic Fragmentation is associated with more terrorism, given its close relationship with the role of the government and socioeconomic conditions of people. We consider a panel of 128 countries between 1971 and 2005 using count data methodologies. This allows us to provide robust evidence for a consistent effect, even when different controls are included. Our baseline estimate indicates that one country with a 1% higher measure of Geographic Fragmentation is associated with an increment of 1.38 in the number of terrorist attacks on average.