Modern Somali pirates behave as rational economic actors: of 815 hostages taken in a recent year, none were intentionally killed (four died apparently accidentally) and only two were injured—under half of 1%—not from niceness but because dead or injured prisoners do not fetch a ransom, so it is better to be captured by a greedy pirate than one who doesn't care about money.

factualpending

Speaker

Peter Leeson

Evidence Quote

the reason is not because Somali pirates are nice guys it's because you know dead and injured prisoners don't fetch a ransom it's not in their financial interest to harm these guys we again see the invisible hook generating at least some kind of conditional benefits

Source

Peter Leeson on Pirates and the Invisible Hook 05/25/2009EconTalk
Created: 6/17/2026, 10:31:31 AM

My Notes

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