Counter-Suicide-Terrorism: Evidence from House Demolitions

We are grateful to Eli Berman, Javier Gardeazabal, Laura Jones Dooley, David Laibson, Ariel Merari, Eva Milgrom, Paul Milgrom, Daniele Paserman, and Todd Sandler for very helpful suggestions. We have also benefited from comments from participants in the Workshop on Political Economy of Counter Insurgency at Princeton University, the Workshop on Political Economy of Terrorism and Insurgency at University of California, San Diego, the Workshop on Terrorism Policy at University of Texas, Dallas, the National Bureau of Economic Reseach summer Workshop on the Economics of National Security, the Western Economic Association meetings, and seminars at Harvard University. We thank the Israeli Security Agency for data on suicide terrorists and B'Tselem (The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories) for data on house demolitions. Esteban Klor is grateful for the warm hospitality of Boston University and the National Bureau of Economic Research while working on this project. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.