Terrorism and the Labor Force: Evidence of an Effect on Female Labor Force Participation and the Labor Gender Gap

Claude Berrebi; Jordan Ostwald

doi:10.1177/0022002714535251

Terrorism and the Labor Force: Evidence of an Effect on Female Labor Force Participation and the Labor Gender Gap

Claude Berrebi^*
, Jordan Ostwald

^*Corresponding author for this work

Federmann School of Public Policy

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

44 Scopus citations

Abstract

Recent studies have identified correlational associations linking terrorism and females’ standing in the labor market. Theories have been proposed to explain these associations. Some concluded that women’s participation in the labor force could be the driver that moves terrorism; others proposed that terrorism motivates the deviations in the labor force. No study has adequately explored causality and the direction of this association. Using a panel data set of 165 countries and terrorism data from 1980 to 2007, we find that terrorist attacks decrease female labor force participation and increase the gender gap between male and female labor force participation. By exploiting variation across countries and time, we are able to identify and quantify these effects; we are also able to address endogeneity concerns by using two novel instrumental variable approaches. The results are statistically significant and robust across a multitude of model specifications.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	32-60
Number of pages	29
Journal	Journal of Conflict Resolution
Volume	60
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002714535251
State	Published - 1 Feb 2016

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Berrebi is grateful for the financial support from the Marie Curie CIG reintegration grant funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2014, © The Author(s) 2014.

UN SDGs

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

SDG 5 Gender Equality
SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

Keywords

conflict
conservatism
gender gap
labor
national security
natural disasters
terrorism

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10.1177/0022002714535251

Cite this

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Terrorism and the Labor Force: Evidence of an Effect on Female Labor Force Participation and the Labor Gender Gap

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Keywords

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