The Effect of Terrorism on Employment and Rice Production in the Philippines

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between terror attacks and economic activity, particularly employment and rice production. I rely on an exhaustive list of terror attacks in the Philippines over the period 2008 to 2017 to identify the economic impacts of terrorism. Using province level data, the estimates provide no evidence that the frequency of terror attacks and number of individuals killed in these attacks affect the employment rate. However, I find that an additional occurrence of a terror attack is associated with a 1 percent decrease in the growth of rice production. The number of fatalities from terror attacks have no significant impact on rice production.