The Cycle of Violence? An Empirical Analysis of Fatalities in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

David Jaeger () and M. Daniele Paserman

No 5320, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper studies the dynamics of violence in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict since the outbreak of the Second (or 'Al-Aqsa') Intifada in September 2000, during which more than 3,300 Palestinians and more than 1,000 Israelis have been killed. The conflict has followed an uneven pattern, with periods of high levels of violence and periods of relative calm. Using data on the number of deaths occurring each day between September 2000 and January 2005, we estimate reaction functions for both Israelis and Palestinians and find evidence of unidirectional Granger causality from Palestinian violence to Israeli violence, but not vice versa. This finding is consistent whether we look only at the incidence of fatalities or whether we look at the level of fatalities, and is robust to the specification of the lag structure and the level of time aggregation. We find little evidence that violence on either side has a direct deterrent or incapacitation effect. We do find, however, that successful assassination attempts do reduce the number of subsequent Israeli fatalities. We conclude that, despite the popular perception that Palestinians and Israelis are engaged in 'tit-for-tat' violence, there is no evidence to support that notion.

Keywords: Granger causality; Intifada; terrorism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C32 D71 D74 H56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa and nep-pbe
Date: Written 2005-10
View list of references View citations in EconPapers

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP5320.asp (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: The Cycle of Violence? An Empirical Analysis of Fatalities in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (2005)
Working Paper: The Cycle of Violence? An Empirical Analysis of Fatalities in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (2005)
Journal Article: The Cycle of Violence? An Empirical Analysis of Fatalities in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (2008)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP5320.asp

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers
Address: Centre for Economic Policy Research, 53--56 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DG
Series data maintained by ().