The Economic Impact of Syrian Refugees on Host Countries: Quasi-experimental Evidence from Turkey
American Economic Review
vol. 106,
no. 5, May 2016
(pp. 456-60)
Abstract
The Syrian Conflict generated forced immigration from northern Syria to southeastern Turkey. Arrival of refugees resembles a natural experiment, which offers good opportunities to study the economic impact of immigration. I study three main outcomes: labor markets, consumer prices, and housing rents. I document moderate employment losses among native informal workers, which suggests that they are partly substituted by refugees. Prices of the items produced in informal labor intensive sectors declined due to labor cost advantages generated by refugee inflows. Finally, refugee inflows increased the rents of higher quality housing units, while there is no effect on lower quality units.Citation
Tumen, Semih. 2016. "The Economic Impact of Syrian Refugees on Host Countries: Quasi-experimental Evidence from Turkey." American Economic Review, 106 (5): 456-60. DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20161065Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- F22 International Migration
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- J46 Informal Labor Markets
- J61 Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
- O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
- R23 Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics
- R38 Production Analysis and Firm Location: Government Policy