National Economic Impact Analysis of Terrorist Attacks and Natural Disasters

The United States has encountered increasing levels of terrorist activity and a number of significant natural disasters in the new millennium, a pattern which has also occurred globally. There has been a degree of uncertainty over the impact of these events on a nation's economy. A unique contribution towards mitigating this uncertainty is offered in this book, which develops a national economic impact model to estimate the effects of simulated terrorist attacks and natural disasters on individual US States and economic sectors. This fully operational model makes up for any deficiencies in the outstanding contributions of Wassily Leontief and Walter Isard whose achievements were constrained by inadequate data and computer capacity in the era of their research. The model measures the effects and highlights economic impacts as a major cost or benefit variable in policy analysis and decision-making. Students and researchers in regional science, planning, economics and geography will find this book offers an informative and fresh perspective. Practitioners, policy makers and general readers interested in public policy issues will benefit from the insights presented into how the economic impact of terrorist attacks and natural disasters shape public policy.