TITLE:
Impact of “Jihadist” Attacks on Military Expenditures of Mali and Burkina Faso: A Synthetic Control Method Approach
AUTHORS:
Philippe Eddy Melkichedek Compaore, Changping Lu
KEYWORDS:
Military Expenditures, Jihadism, Burkina Faso, Mali, SCM
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.14 No.3,
March
12,
2026
ABSTRACT: The outbreak of Jihadism in the Sahara desert changed the economic and security landscape of the countries located in this area, and among the economies that have been affected are Mali and Burkina Faso. The upsurge of extreme violence led these countries to rethink their defense strategies in order to face the rising threat of this new form of terrorism. Using the synthetic control method on a panel data set ranging from 1990 to 2022, this paper estimates the nexus between jihadist attacks and the military expenditures in Burkina Faso and Mali. Our findings support that the terrorist activities have increased our variable of interest by 105 percent in Burkina Faso and 145 percent in Mali.