Is Youth Unemployment Related to Domestic Terrorism?

The growing youth unemployment rate and population (youth bulge) in many countries raises concerns about their potential contributions to unrest and instability. In this article, we investigate the possible contributions of youth unemployment to domestic terrorism using a cross-country panel database. Our results show a positive relationship between youth unemployment and domestic terrorism, conditional upon different development factors, including corruption, government ineffectiveness and the absence of the rule of law. However, as expected, across countries, youth unemployment is not a significant predictor of transnational terrorism. We conclude by highlighting the need for deeper consideration of the role of unemployed youth in terrorism prevention strategies.