Socio-Economic Determinants of Female Suicide Terrorism: A Panel Study of South Asia

Abstract

This study analyses the socioeconomic factors of female suicide terrorism in South Asia. The study utilises panel data spanning the period from 2000 to 2020. The study applied panel unit root tests, panel cointegration tests and fully modified ordinary least squares regression. The unit root test indicates that all the variables are integrated of order one. The panel cointegration tests confirmed that political stability, employment, inflation, education and female suicide terrorism are cointegrated in the long run. The study used a fully modified ordinary least squares method and found that employment does not have a significant relationship with female suicide terrorism, even though it is negatively correlated with it. The results also showed that education and political stability alleviate female suicide terrorism, while inflation is positively associated with female suicide terrorism in South Asia. The results provide policy insights to alleviate female suicide terrorism in South Asia.