Dr. Eli Berman

Biography

Eli Berman is a Professor at the University of California, San Diego, within the Department of Economics and the School of Global Policy and Strategy. His research primarily focuses on economic development in fragile environments, especially in the context of conflict. He has made significant contributions to the understanding of economics as it relates to religion, labor economics, technological change, and economic demography. Berman is known for applying rational choice analysis to the behavior of radical religious groups. He serves as a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and is the director of International Security Studies at the Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC). He is involved in the Empirical Studies of Conflict (ESOC) project and is the president of the Economics of National Security Association (ENSA) and co-director of the Policy Design and Evaluation Lab (PDEL). Berman's notable publications include “Proxy Wars” (2019) and “Small Wars, Big Data” (2018), both co-authored, as well as his 2009 work “Radical, Religious, and Violent: New Economics of Terrorism.” His research often examines the interactions between religion and terrorism through an economic lens, contributing to academic discussions with works such as

Research Interests