Eli Berman

Eli Berman is chair and professor of economics at UC San Diego and co-directs the Economics of National Security group at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is also research director for international security studies at the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. His latest publications include "The Empiricists' Insurgency," (with Aila Matanock in the Annual Review of Political Science, 2015), “Modest, Secure and Employed: Successful Development in Conflict Zones,” (with Joseph Felter, Jacob Shapiro and Erin Troland, in the American Economic Review P&P, 2013), and “Can Hearts and Minds Be Bought? The Economics of Counterinsurgency in Iraq” (with Shapiro and Felter, in the Journal of Political Economy, 2011). Recent grants supporting his research have come from the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation. His book Radical, Religious and Violent: The New Economics of Terrorism was published in 2009 by the MIT Press. Berman received his PhD in economics from Harvard University.

• Economic development and conflict
• The economics of religion
• Labor economics
• Terrorism and insurgency

Recent Publications

"The Empiricists' Insurgency." (with Aila Matanock) Annual Review of Political Science, Vol 18: 443-464, (May 2015).

"Modest, Secure and Informed: Effective Development in Conflict Zones." (with Joseph Felter, Jacob Shapiro and Erin Troland) American Economic Review Paper and Proceedings, Vol. 103 No. 3 (May 2013), 512-17.

"Can Hearts and Minds be Bought? The Economics of Counterinsurgency in Iraq." (with Jacob Shapiro and Joseph Felter) Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 119, No. 4 (October 2011), 766-819.

"Do Working Men Rebel? Unemployment and Insurgency in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Philippines." (with Jacob Shapiro, Joseph Felter and Michael Callen) Journal of Conflict Resolution, August 2011 vol. 55 no. 4 496-528.

"Religion, Terrorism and Public Goods: Testing the Club Model." (with David Laitin) Journal of Public Economics 92(10-11), 1942-1967, (2008).

"Religious Extremists: The Good, the Bad and the Deadly." (with Laurence R. Iannaccone) Public Choice, 2006.

Radical, Religious, and Violent: The New Economics of Terrorism. Cambridge: MIT Press, October 2009.