ABSTRACT
Studies regarding the economic repercussion of terrorism have gained—especially after the attacks of 9/11 (Neumayer, 2004:262)—wide attention from scholars and policymakers, both from the input (terrorist financing) and the output (economic consequences of terrorism) side. And while in the aftermath of 9/11 the economic repercussions of those attacks still tended to be broadly overestimated, after more than one-and-a-half decades of monographic studies it has become possible to obtain a sharper and more precise image about how terrorist actions affect the economy. Thus, in the present chapter we give an overview of the current state of the art regarding the economic impact of terrorism differentiating two scenarios: (a) single or isolated terrorist events of a certain magnitude and (b) countries or regions which suffer terrorist attacks over an extended period of time. In addition, the question about terrorist incomes and its sources will be briefly reviewed, as practice has proven that cutting off a terrorist group’s financial income represents a crucial aspect of any effective counterterrorist policy.
