Marcus Marktanner

From armed conflict to disaster vulnerability

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to estimate the effect of armed conflict on the vulnerability to natural hazards. Design/methodology/approach – The authors employ panel estimates of disaster deaths on a lagged indicator of the presence of armed conflict. Findings – Disaster deaths following armed conflict are on average 40 percent higher compared to disasters that are chronologically detached from armed conflict events; a legacy of armed conflict accounts for roughly 14 percent of the approximately five million disaster deaths between 1961 and 2010. Practical implications – A global estimate of the relationship between armed conflict and disaster vulnerability can help disaster management planners identify policy priorities associated with disaster prevention and management. Originality/value – The analysis reinforces the findings in previous qualitative studies of a causal link between armed conflict and increased disaster vulnerability and provides a quantitative estimate of the average magnitude...

Social versus conservative democracies and homicide rates

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to critique recent findings that democratic practices are positively related to homicide rates. Design/methodology/approach – Economic rational choice model supported by empirical evidence. Findings – It was found that higher homicide rates are only characteristic of democracies that fail to respond to the median voters call for equitable social development. Originality/value – The paper makes an original distinction between conservative and social democracies, operationalizes this distinction theoretically and empirically, and shows that higher homicide rates are a phenomenon of conservative, not social, democracies.

The Economic Cost of Wasta in the Arab World: An Empirical Approach

While wasta is a phenomenon that is often seen to be engrained in Arab culture, there is no universally accepted definition of wasta that would separate it from related concepts such as corruption, bribery, or nepotism. A working definition is therefore needed. We define wasta as the use of personal networks for the purpose of gaining access to scarce resources like, for example, jobs, building permits, university admissions, and doctor’s appointments. In other words, someone with wasta can access such resources with fewer obstacles than someone without wasta.

Muslim Youth Unemployment and Expat Jihadism - Bored to Death?

ABSTRACT Empirical studies analyzing the push factors of expat jihadism are scarce and typically give contradictory results. We hypothesize that youth unemployment, as opposed to overall unemployment, is a significant determinant of foreign fighters flow to join the Islamic State. Moreover, we also consider the interaction between youth unemployment and the Muslim population share as another meaningful variables affecting expat jihadism. Controlling for several variables including gross domestic product per capita; Gini; geographical proximity; the share of manufactures and services as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product; Polity score; and fractionalization, we provide strong evidence for the hypothesis that Muslim youth unemployment is a driver of expat jihadism not only for Muslim-majority countries, but globally.

Sectoral FDI, absorptive capacity and economic growth – empirical evidence from Egyptian governorates

ABSTRACT Using a novel panel dataset of Egyptian governorates for the period 1992–2007, we investigate the effects of aggregate and sectoral foreign direct investment (FDI) on Egypt’s economic growth. We distinguish between FDI in the manufacturing, agriculture and service sector. The similarity of governorates in terms of institutional characteristics like culture, language and legal framework and the consistency of the data collection process enables an effective estimation of the effect of FDI on Egypt’s economic growth. Employing General Methods of Moments (GMM) panel estimations, we find that neither aggregate nor sectoral FDI has an unconditional effect on economic growth. We also reject human capital as a channel of absorptive capacity, but reveal an interesting effect of FDI in the service sector on economic growth in interaction with domestic private investment (DPI). Service FDI promotes economic growth only if the host governorate has a minimum threshold of DPI to absorb foreign knowledge and technology.

Legitimacy and market development risks of Sovereign Wealth Funds

Sovereign Wealth Funds objectives can be classified as either demand stabilisation, supply side strengthening, or wealth conservation. These objectives cannot only be explained by domestic development needs, they also show different profiles of market development and political legitimacy risks. Specifically, we find that supply side strengtheners are on average exposed to both legitimacy and market development risks. Demand stabilisers carry only market development risks. Wealth conservation funds have the least exposure to either risk.

Did 9/11 change the New York state of mind? Lessons from NYC's leisure and hospitality labour market

The authors show that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 caused a permanent structural break in NYCs leisure and hospitality labour market. This structural break is visible from both an interrupted time-series perspective and a comparison with NYCs overall economic development. Assuming that the labour market dynamics of the leisure and hospitality industry mirror a citys feel in the hedonism–asceticism spectrum, the authors conclude that the 9/11 terrorist attacks have permanently shifted ‘New Yorks state of mind’ from hedonism towards asceticism. These results suggest that greater attention must be given to the formulation of effective industry marketing strategies in response to the legacy of urban terrorism.