Alan Krueger, What Makes a Terrorist:
“Why is an economist studying terrorism? I have two answers. First, participation in terrorism is just a special application of the economics of occupational choice. Some peo ple choose to become doctors or lawyers, and others pursue careers in terrorism. Economics can help us understand why.
The second answer is that, together with Jörn-Steffen Pischke, now at the London School of Economics, I studied the outbreak of hate crimes against foreigners in Germany in the early 1990s. Through this work, I concluded that poor economic conditions do not seem to motivate people to par ticipate in hate crimes.”
