Fighting terrorism in Africa: benchmarking policy harmonization

Simplice Asongu, Vanessa Tchamyou (), Jules Minkoua () and Ndemaze Asongu ()
Additional contact information
Jules Minkoua: Yaoundé/Cameroon
Ndemaze Asongu: Yaoundé, Cameroon
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Ndemaze Asongu

No 17/049, Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. from African Governance and Development Institute.

Abstract: This study assesses the feasibility of policy harmonization in the fight against terrorism in 53 African countries with data for the period 1980-2012. Four terrorism variables are used, namely: domestic, transnational, unclear and total terrorism dynamics. The empirical evidence is based on absolute beta catch-up and sigma convergence estimation techniques. There is substantial absence of catch-up. The lowest rate of convergence in terrorism is in landlocked countries for regressions pertaining to unclear terrorism (3.43% per annum for 174.9 years) while the highest rate of convergence is in upper-middle-income countries in domestic terrorism regressions (15.33% per annum for 39.13 years). After comparing results from the two estimation techniques, it is apparent that in the contemporary era, countries with low levels of terrorism are not catching-up their counterparts with high levels of terrorism. As a policy implication, whereas some common policies may be feasibly adopted for the fight against terrorism, the findings based on the last periodic phase (2004-2012) are indicative that country-specific policies would better pay-off in the fight against terrorism than blanket common policies. Some suggestions of measures in fighting transnational terrorism have been discussed in the light of an anticipated surge in cross-national terrorism incidences in the coming years.

Keywords: Terrorism; Common policies; Development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C52 D74 F42 K42 O38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47
Date: 2017-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Forthcoming in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications

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http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Fighti ... cy-harmonization.pdf Revised version, 2017 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Fighting terrorism in Africa: Benchmarking policy harmonization (2018)
Working Paper: Fighting terrorism in Africa: benchmarking policy harmonization (2018)
Working Paper: Fighting terrorism in Africa: benchmarking policy harmonization (2017)
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