Recent findings in Economic Psychology on the thinking and judgment of economic laymen can help to improve economic policy advice. First, based on psychological theories and empirical findings, the notion of the Homo oeconomicus is challenged. The economic situation is judged by laymen using...

The growing shadow economy in Germany is a challenge to the welfare state and economic policy. The burden of taxation and social security contributions combined with rising state regulatory activities are the main causes for the increase in the shadow economy. The consequences are ambivalent,...

Research output in economics is commonly measured based on the reputation of the journals in which an author has published. Using data from the 2010 Handelsblatt ranking of economists in German speaking countries and citation data from the Web of Science, we examine the relationship between...

The main objective of this paper is to empirically investigate the socio-economic causes of terrorism and political violence in a sample of 12 countries in Western Europe. First, we show that in western European countries the classical economic argument of opportunity cost is confirmed. That is,...

Prior research has concluded that socio-economic development does not significantly affect terrorism. We take an alternative view. First, we note that a country's socio-economic circumstances affect terrorists' behavior through terrorism's opportunity costs. We argue that this reasoning also...

► We identify research gaps and recent contributions in the economics of terror. ► We focus on the human drivers of insecurity as a key topic. ► Insecurity shapes growth, perceptions of individuals, and policy responses. ► The economics of security policies remains large under-researched.