The economic cost of March 11:: Measuring the direct economic cost of the terrorist attack on March 11, 2004 in Madrid

This article attempts to measure the direct costs that the terrorist attacks of 3/11 had on the economy of the region of Madrid. The evaluation has been made applying conservative criteria, and the results obtained have to be considered as minimum. The result indicates that the terrorist attacks caused a loss of nearly 212 millioneuros to the regional economy of Madrid, equivalent to 0.16 percent of the regional GDP ( 0.03 of the national GDP). This confirms that the immediate economic dimension of a terrorist attack such as the one of 3/11-apart from human catastrophic consequences - is relatively low.