The diseconomies of terrorism

Article

Phillips, Peter J.. 2011. "The diseconomies of terrorism." World Economics: the journal of current economic analysis and policy. 12 (4), pp. 171-192.
Article Title

The diseconomies of terrorism

ERA Journal ID18239
Article CategoryArticle
Authors
AuthorPhillips, Peter J.
Journal TitleWorld Economics: the journal of current economic analysis and policy
Journal Citation12 (4), pp. 171-192
Number of Pages21
Year2011
Place of PublicationUnited Kingdom
ISSN1468-1838
1474-3884
Web Address (URL)http://www.world-economics-journal.com/Contents/ArticleOverview.aspx?ID=501
Abstract

The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) contains many active and inactive terrorist groups. The defining characteristic of the terrorist groups contained in the GTD is smallness. Unlike the modern business enterprise, for example, there appears to be no trend towards ‘bigness’. This paper presents an analysis of the size distribution of terrorist groups and the implications of this size distribution for the technological conditions under which the output of terrorism may be increased. With net internal and external diseconomies to larger-scale production of terrorism, we should observe relatively small terrorist groups and little or no tendency for the number and size of terrorist groups in the ‘terrorism industry’ to increase. These facts do characterise the empirically observed size distribution of terrorist groups, and imply that the technological conditions under which the output of terrorism may be increased are characterised by internal and external diseconomies to larger-scale production of terrorism.

Keywordsterrorist group, size, diseconomies, scale
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020380199. Applied economics not elsewhere classified
440804. Defence studies
380304. Microeconomic theory
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Byline AffiliationsSchool of Accounting, Economics and Finance
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
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