The Formation of Terrorist Groups: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

This article investigates the determinants of terrorist group formation. Using a series of negative binomial regressions with both time and country fixed effects, this paper finds that population, state failure, and civil wars are positive determinants of terrorist group formation. Per capita income has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the incubation of terrorist groups, while regime type is not a significant indicator of the establishment of new terrorist groups. This paper contributes to the existing literature by taking the annual number of newly formed terrorist groups as the dependent variable and extending the time frame of previous research with the help of a recently published dataset.
KEYWORDS:

• Formation
• terrorist groups
• cause of terrorism

Description