Youth Bulges, Busts, and Doing Business in Violence-Prone Nations

To ascertain whether youth bulges are related to violent conflict and whether violent conflict falls off when youth bulges are followed by busts, we analyzed data from 1998-2005 covering 127 nations. Controlling for variables representing such factors as socio-development, macroeconomics, technology advancement, government capacity, and geo-politics, we find that youth bulges are related to violent conflict, but when youth bulges are followed by busts violent conflict grows rather than diminishes contrary to the prediction we make. From this analysis, we draw implications for further research and analysis with regard to doing business in violence-prone nations.