ANNEX E ECONOMIC COSTS OF TERRORISM METHODOLOGY
The costs of terrorism are calculated using data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), which is collated by the National Consortium of the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). The model takes into account the direct and indirect costs associated with death and injury, as well as the direct costs from property damage and kidnapping.
While the value of property damage is taken from the START database, the losses due to death and injury are calculated using IEPs costs from homicide (death) and assault (injury). The costs of homicides and assault are taken from McCollister (2010) as the cost of violent injury or death. This is then scaled to an individual country’s GDP per capita (GDP PPP) relative to the source of the estimate. The relative cost is then multiplied by the total number of deaths or injuries caused by terrorism for each country.
FIGURE 44 ESTIMATED COSTS FROM AN ATTACK IN LEBANON ON 19 FEBRUARY 2014 The major components of the costs from this attack were associated with the fatalities. This is consistent with the total economic costs of terrorism.
The cost of property damage is taken from the average cost of an attack as shown in the START database. The START database contains the size of the attack and the type of attack, shown by the eight columns in table 14. As data is missing for some attacks, IEP takes the average cost for each category and applies it as a set unit cost.
Injuries
An example of the costing methodology can be shown using an incident which occurred in Beirut, Lebanon on 19, February 2014. A minor bombing occurred in Beirut targeting private citizens. A total of seven people were killed and 64 wounded. According to IEPs estimations, the total economic cost of the event accumulated to US$27,812,477. This was comprised of $24,342,254 due to death (88 per cent), $3,067,860 due to injury (11 per cent) and $402,333 from property damage (1 per cent).
Property damage
Deaths
Source: IEP calculations
GLOBAL TERRORISM INDEX 2015 Â| Annexes
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