Is Climate Change a Greater Threat than Terrorism? An Economic Analysis

While I agree with President Obama that climate change is a bigger threat than terrorism,  I would encourage him to read my paper on this subject.   My paper is titled; Urban adaptation to low-probability shocks: contrasting terrorism and natural disaster risk" and you can download it here. I argue that Mother Nature's shocks are more predictable than a rational terrorist's attacks. Since Mother Nature's shocks (i.e hurricanes hitting New Orleans, tornadoes in the mid-west) are more predictable, we are better able to adapt to them. In contrast, a terrorist plays a strategic game with his potential victims and actively uses randomization to continue to scare the opponent by being unpredictable! This rational strategy means that we potential victims of terrorism are less able to adapt to it because the next shock (where , when and how) is so unpredictable. Read my paper for more details!

Urban adaptation to low-probability shocks: contrasting terrorism and natural disaster risk , book chapter in a Edgar Elgar book edited by Kerry Smith and Carol Mansfield.   An early draft is available here.