This article improves and refines the joint product model so that it can better analyze nuclear war alliances. In particular, the refined models demonstrate that allies' responses to defense spillovers depend upon the consumption relationship (i.e., complementarity or substitutability) of the...

This article identifies factors that help explain terrorist success in hostage-taking events. Two measures of success are examined: logistical success and negotiation success. In the empirical estimations, we regress the log of the odds ratio against various sets of explanatory variables. For...

This article surveys the development of the economic theory of alliances over the last quarter of a century since the 1966 article by Olson and Zeckhauser. The pure public good model and the joint product model are presented and then brought up to date. Alternative demand functions for military...

A neoclassical growth model is used to empirically test for the influences of a civil war on steady-state income per capita both at home and in neighboring countries. This model provides the basis for measuring long-run and short-run effects of civil wars on income per capita growth in the host...

It is the purpose of this article to extend and to clarify the public goods approach to the study of alliances. In particular, the paper examines the nature of defense as a pure public good and draws the conclusion that some defense expenditure may be best classified as an impure public good due...

In a two-player proactive response game the level of proactive activity and the choice of terrorist target is endogenized. The targeted government first chooses its measures to weaken the terrorists, and the terrorists then choose the type of event—normal or spectacular. Unlike previous...

This article establishes the prevalence of deterrence over preemption when targeted governments can choose between either policies or employ both. There is a similar proclivity to favor defensive counter-terrorist measures over proactive policies. Unfortunately, this predisposition results in an...

Using time-series procedures, the authors investigate whether transnational terrorism changed following 9/11 and the subsequent U.S.-led “war on terror.†Perhaps surprising, little has changed in the time series of overall incidents and most of its component series. When 9/11 is...