Transnational terrorist recruitment: Evidence from Daesh personnel records

Anne Brockmeyer; Quy-Toan Do; Clement Joubert; Kartika Bhatia; Mohamed Abdel Jelil

doi:10.1162/rest_a_01161

Transnational terrorist recruitment: Evidence from Daesh personnel records

Anne Brockmeyer
, Quy-Toan Do
, Clement Joubert
, Kartika Bhatia
, Mohamed Abdel Jelil

The World Bank
University College London
Centre for Economic Policy Research
A Society for Promotion of Inclusive and Relevant Education (ASPIRE)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Global terrorist organizations attract radicalized individuals across borders and constitute a threat for both sending and receiving countries. We use unique personnel records from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Daesh) to show that unemployment in sending countries is associated with the number of transnational terrorist recruits from these countries. The relationship is spatially heterogeneous, which is most plausibly attributable to travel costs. We argue that poor labor market opportunities generally push more individuals to join terrorist organizations, but at the same time, limit their ability to do so when longer travel distances imply higher travel costs.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1092-1109
Number of pages	18
Journal	The Review of Economics and Statistics
Volume	105
Issue number	5
Early online date	13 Sept 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01161
Publication status	Published - Sept 2023
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The World Bank.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

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10.1162/rest_a_01161

Cite this

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abstract = "Global terrorist organizations attract radicalized individuals across borders and constitute a threat for both sending and receiving countries. We use unique personnel records from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Daesh) to show that unemployment in sending countries is associated with the number of transnational terrorist recruits from these countries. The relationship is spatially heterogeneous, which is most plausibly attributable to travel costs. We argue that poor labor market opportunities generally push more individuals to join terrorist organizations, but at the same time, limit their ability to do so when longer travel distances imply higher travel costs.",

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AU - Abdel Jelil, Mohamed

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Transnational terrorist recruitment: Evidence from Daesh personnel records

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

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Economic and social inclusion to prevent violent extremism

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