Rally post-terrorism

<p dir="ltr">This study examines whether the “rally ’round the flag” phenomenon is present after terror-<br>ist attacks, and investigates explanations for this increase in confidence in national political<br>institutions and approval of the country leader’s job performance. I exploit variations in<br>terrorist occurrences and results (success or failure) across subnational EU regions where at<br>least one attack took place during the data period. I show empirically that both terrorist<br>occurrences and results are plausibly exogenous to the prior political and economic climate.<br>Conducting a difference-in-differences analysis, I compare changes in political confidence<br>and approval among individuals who were exposed to an attack in their region with those<br>who were not. Utilizing another more sophisticated identification, I also compare such<br>political changes after successful attacks with those after failed attacks. I find that post-<br>terrorism, individual political confidence and support significantly increased by more than<br>10 percentage points, and that this political increment was over 5 percentage points after<br>successful attacks relative to failed ones. Such rally effects were temporary and faded away<br>within a year. Furthermore, I explore various potential channels suggesting patriotism and<br>civic engagement as mechanisms while rejecting perceived economic capture and political<br>acquisition as alternative explanations.</p>