The lone wolf suicide terrorist: a preliminary application of mean-variance methods

Article

Phillips, Peter J.. 2010. "The lone wolf suicide terrorist: a preliminary application of mean-variance methods." Applied Economics Research Bulletin. 8 (4), pp. 1-9.
Article Title

The lone wolf suicide terrorist: a preliminary application of mean-variance methods

Article CategoryArticle
Authors
AuthorPhillips, Peter J.
Journal TitleApplied Economics Research Bulletin
Journal Citation8 (4), pp. 1-9
Number of Pages9
Year2010
Place of PublicationBerkeley, CA. United States
Web Address (URL)https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B95uP0Flg3KJamZtbmZtU25kUEE/edit?usp=sharing&pli=1
Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the insights that might be generated into the nature of 'lone wolf suicide terrorism' through the application of mean-variance analysis. Orthodox approaches to the analysis of terrorism, particularly (standard) expected utility analysis and game theoretical analysis, may need to be extended or complemented with new approaches in order to generate analytical insights into lone wolf suicide terrorism. One such approach is mean-variance analysis. Commonly deployed in financial economics, mean-variance preference orderings with quadratic utility can be applied even when the mean expected return and variance are infinite. This fact might potentially be exploited to analyse, from an economic perspective, the behaviour of the lone wolf suicide terrorist for which success might be reasonably considered to generate an infinite expected return.

Keywordslone wolf; suicide terrorism; economic analysis; mean-variance; preference ordering; quadratic utility
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020441006. Sociological methodology and research methods
490509. Statistical theory
520105. Psychological methodology, design and analysis
Public Notes

This publication is copyright. It may be reproduced in whole or in part for the purposes of study, research, or review, but is subject to the inclusion of an acknowledgment of the source. The journal is committed to remaining a non-commercial undertaking. http://berkeleymath.com/BerkeleyJournal.aspx

Byline AffiliationsSchool of Accounting, Economics and Finance
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