International Terrorism, Political Instability and The Escalation Effect
 

        with Martin Gassebner
 

        What are the main causes of international terrorism? The lessons from the surge of academic research that
        followed 9/11 remain elusive. The careful investigation of the relative roles of economic and political conditions
        did little to change the fact that existing econometric estimates diverge in size, sign and significance. In this
        paper we present a new rationale (the escalation effect) stressing domestic political instability as the main
        reason for international terrorism. Econometric evidence from a panel of more than 130 countries (yearly from
        1968 to 2003) shows this to be a much more promising avenue for future research than the available alternatives.
 

        Download working paper version:       IZA DP          CEPR DP
 
 

         Latest literature:  Link 1 and Link 2
 
 
 
 

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