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Alex Nowrasteh

Bio: Alex Nowrasteh is an academic researcher from Cato Institute. The author has contributed to research in topics: Immigration & Population. The author has an hindex of 13, co-authored 27 publications receiving 503 citations. Previous affiliations of Alex Nowrasteh include London School of Economics and Political Science & George Mason University.

Papers
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors take a comparative institutional approach to examine Somalia's performance relative to other African countries both when Somalia had a government and during its extended period of anarchy, finding that although Somalia is poor, its relative economic performance has improved during its period of statelessness.
Abstract: Many people believe that Somalia's economy has been in chaos since the collapse of its national government in 1991. We take a comparative institutional approach to examine Somalia's performance relative to other African countries both when Somalia had a government and during its extended period of anarchy. We find that although Somalia is poor, its relative economic performance has improved during its period of statelessness. We describe how Somalia has provided basic law and order and a currency, enabling the country to achieve the coordination that has led to improvements in its standard of living.

175 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors empirically examined how immigration impacts a nation's policies and institutions and found no evidence of negative and some evidence of positive impacts in institutional quality as a result of immigration, and they concluded that strong private property rights, a rule of law, and an environment of economic freedom for promoting long-run prosperity can be achieved.
Abstract: The economics literature generally finds a positive, but small, gain in income to native-born populations from immigrants and potentially large gains in world incomes. But immigrants can also impact a recipient nation’s institutions. A growing empirical literature supports the importance of strong private property rights, a rule of law, and an environment of economic freedom for promoting long-run prosperity. But little is known about how immigration impacts these institutions. This paper empirically examines how immigration impacts a nation’s policies and institutions. We find no evidence of negative and some evidence of positive impacts in institutional quality as a result of immigration.

75 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper found that high quality political institutions were maintained while economic institutions improved substantially over the decade and that the immigrants played an active role in this institutional evolution and also employ a synthetic control to verify that the institutions improvement would not have occurred to the same degree without the mass migration.
Abstract: The relaxation of emigration restrictions in the Soviet Union and the State’s subsequent collapse led to a large exogenous shock to Israel’s immigrant flows because Israel allows unrestricted immigration for world-wide Jews. Israel’s population increased by 20 percent in the 1990s due to immigration from the former Soviet Union. These immigrants did not bring social capital that eroded the quality of Israel’s institutional environment. We find that high quality political institutions were maintained while economic institutions improved substantially over the decade. Our case study finds that the immigrants played an active role in this institutional evolution and we also employ a synthetic control to verify that it is likely that the institutions improvement would not have occurred to the same degree without the mass migration.

46 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper found that immigration from the former Soviet Union led to a large exogenous shock to Israel's immigrant flows, and that these immigrants did not bring social capital that eroded the quality of Israel's institutional environment.
Abstract: The relaxation of emigration restrictions in the Soviet Union and the State’s subsequent collapse led to a large exogenous shock to Israel’s immigrant flows because Israel allows unrestricted immigration for world-wide Jews. Israel’s population increased by 20% in the 1990s due to immigration from the former Soviet Union. These immigrants did not bring social capital that eroded the quality of Israel’s institutional environment. We find that economic institutions’ improved substantially over the decade. Our synthetic control methodology indicates that it is likely that the institutions improvement would not have occurred to the same degree without the mass migration. Our case study indicates that immigrant participation in the political process is the main mechanism through which the migration caused institutional change.

39 citations

Posted Content
Alex Nowrasteh1
TL;DR: A terrorism risk analysis of the visa categories those foreign-born terrorists used to enter the United States from 1975 through the end of 2015 is presented in this article. But the analysis is limited to the most common tourist visa categories.
Abstract: Terrorism is a hazard to human life and material prosperity that should be addressed in a sensible manner whereby the benefits of actions to contain it outweigh the costs. Foreign-born terrorists who entered the country, either as immigrants or tourists, were responsible for 88 percent (or 3,024) of the 3,432 murders caused by terrorists on U.S. soil from 1975 through the end of 2015. This paper presents the first terrorism risk analysis of the visa categories those foreign-born terrorists used to enter the United States.Including those murdered in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11), the chance of an American perishing in a terrorist attack on U.S. soil that was committed by a foreigner over the 41-year period studied here is 1 in 3.6 million per year. The hazard posed by foreigners who entered on different visa categories varies considerably. For instance, the chance of an American being murdered in a terrorist attack caused by a refugee is 1 in 3.64 billion per year while the chance of being murdered in an attack committed by an illegal immigrant is an astronomical 1 in 10.9 billion per year. By contrast, the chance of being murdered by a tourist on a B visa, the most common tourist visa, is 1 in 3.9 million per year. Any government response to terrorism must take account of the wide range of hazards posed by foreign-born terrorists who entered under various visa categories.The federal government has an important role to play in screening foreigners who enter the United States, and to exclude those who pose a threat to the national security, safety, or health of Americans. This terrorism risk analysis of individual visa categories can aid in the efficient allocation of scarce government security resources to those categories that are most exploitable by terrorists. The hazards posed by foreign-born terrorists are not large enough to warrant extreme actions like a moratorium on all immigration or tourism.

32 citations


Cited by
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01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: The case study research principles and practices is universally compatible with any devices to read and will help you to get the most less latency time to download any of the authors' books like this one.
Abstract: Thank you for reading case study research principles and practices. As you may know, people have search numerous times for their favorite novels like this case study research principles and practices, but end up in malicious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some infectious virus inside their laptop. case study research principles and practices is available in our book collection an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly. Our book servers hosts in multiple countries, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Kindly say, the case study research principles and practices is universally compatible with any devices to read.

848 citations

01 Jan 2010
Abstract: 1 July 7, 2010, marks the fifth anniversary of the 2005 terrorist attacks on London’s Metro system. In 2005, terrorists launched a coordinated attack against London’s transportation system, with 3 bombs detonating simultaneously at three different Metro stations and a fourth bomb exploding an hour later on a city bus. In all, there were 52 victims in these bombings with an additional 700 injuries resulting. The four terrorists who executed the attacks were killed in the explosions.

667 citations

01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: The authors reflecting Adam Smith's wide learning and varied interests, these essays shed considerable light on his place in the Scottish Enlightenment, including histories of astronomy, ancient logic and ancient physics; essays on the "imitative" arts and the affinity between music, dancing, and poetry; and a critical review of Samuel Johnson's famous Dictionary.
Abstract: Reflecting Adam Smith's wide learning and varied interests, these essays shed considerable light on his place in the Scottish Enlightenment. Included are histories of astronomy, ancient logic, and ancient physics; essays on the "imitative" arts and the affinity between music, dancing, and poetry; and a critical review of Samuel Johnson's famous Dictionary. which Smith originally published in the Edinburgh Review (1755-56).

419 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: The authors define social capital as the set of values and beliefs that help cooperation, which they call "civic capital" and argue that this definition differentiates social capital from human capital and satisfies the properties of the standard notion of capital.
Abstract: This chapter reviews the recent debate about the role of social capital in economics. We argue that all the difficulties this concept has encountered in economics are due to a vague and excessively broad definition. For this reason, we restrict social capital to the set of values and beliefs that help cooperation - which for clarity we label civic capital. We argue that this definition differentiates social capital from human capital and satisfies the properties of the standard notion of capital. We then argue that civic capital can explain why differences in economic performance persist over centuries and discuss how the effect of civic capital can be distinguished empirically from other variables that affect economic performance and its persistence, including institutions and geography.

313 citations