Are the Better Educated Less Likely to Support Militancy and Terrorism in Pakistan? Women Are.

Featuring
Madiha Afzal
University of Maryland

With discussant
Philip Keefer
World Bank

Contrary to conventional wisdom, in recent evidence the support for militancy and terrorism does not decline with increasing levels of education in various contexts. In this MADS, Madiha Afzal will present her paper that uses data from a nationally representative public opinion poll in Pakistan to show that the relationship between education and support for militancy and terrorism varies by gender. Specifically: 1) as women become more educated, they are less likely to support militancy and terrorism relative to similarly educated men, whereas uneducated women are more likely to support militancy and terrorism relative to uneducated men, controlling for demographics and region; 2) the result continues to hold after accounting for terrorist events in the district using data from the Global Terrorism Database; 3) the effect of women’s education is driven by the years of schooling immediately preceding and following a high school degree; 4) the result reverses when it comes to views of the United States, so that educated women have more negative views of the United States relative to educated men, and uneducated women have more positive views of the United States relative to uneducated men.

*The Massachusetts Ave. Development Seminar (MADS) is a ten year-old research seminar series that brings some of the world’s leading development scholars to discuss their new research and ideas. The presentations meet an academic standard of quality and are at times technical, but retain a focus on a mixed audience of researchers and policymakers.