The Economic Cost of Violence Containment, ANALYSIS, 10 March 2014

by Institute for Economics and Peace – TRANSCEND Media Service

One of the major challenges in developing policies aimed at increasing peace is the difficulty of being able to accurately gauge the benefits that result from peace.

Recognising this, the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) has developed a new and ground breaking methodology to estimate the cost of violence to the global economy, including calculations for 152 countries that detail the costs of thirteen different types of violence.

This deeper insight into the breakdown of national costs of violence allows for better targeting of development assistance and also enables national governments to more accurately assess the costs associated with violence and the likely benefits that would flow from improvements in peace.

In developing this methodology IEP uses the concept of ‘violence containment’ spending. IEP defines violence containment spending as economic activity that is related to the consequences or prevention of violence where the violence is directed against people or property.

Read the analysis of the report here.

Read the full report here.