TY - JOUR AU - Benmelech, Efraim AU - Berrebi, Claude AU - Klor, Esteban F TI - Economic Conditions and the Quality of Suicide Terrorism JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 16320 PY - 2010 Y2 - August 2010 DO - 10.3386/w16320 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16320 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16320.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Efraim Benmelech Kellogg School of Management Northwestern University 2001 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60208 Tel: 847/491-4462 Fax: 847/491-5719 E-Mail: e-benmelech@kellogg.northwestern.edu Claude Berrebi The Federmann School of Public Policy and Government Hebrew University Mount Scopus Jerusalem ISRAEL 91905 E-Mail: claude.berrebi@gmail.com Esteban Klor Dept. of Economics Hebrew University Mount Scopus Jerusalem ISRAEL 91905 E-Mail: eklor@huji.ac.il AB - We analyze the link between economic conditions and the quality of suicide terrorism. While the existing empirical literature shows that poverty and economic conditions are not correlated with the quantity of terror, theory predicts that poverty and poor economic conditions may affect the quality of terror. Poor economic conditions may lead more able, better-educated individuals to participate in terror attacks, allowing terror organizations to send better-qualified terrorists to more complex, higher-impact, terror missions. Using the universe of Palestinian suicide terrorists against Israeli targets between the years 2000 and 2006 we provide evidence on the correlation between economic conditions, the characteristics of suicide terrorists and the targets they attack. High levels of unemployment enable terror organizations to recruit more educated, mature and experienced suicide terrorists who in turn attack more important Israeli targets. ER -