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Building Evidence on Forced Displacement

FOCUS PAPERS

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This initiative synthetizes lessons emerging from the entire research program and complements the program with additional studies. Research activities include literature reviews, desk research, meta-analyses of existing literature and original studies complementing research financed under the activities, shedding light on global questions, and improving programs.



Measuring Poverty in Forced Displacement Contexts

Measuring Poverty in Forced Displacement Contexts

2022

Poverty measurement among forcibly displaced populations, including refugees and internally displaced persons, has been, for long, neglected by the economics profession and by poverty specialists working across the social sciences. This has changed since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011 and the peak of the European migration crisis in 2015. This paper reviews the evolution, current status, and future prospects of the poverty measurement literature on forcibly displaced populations; discusses the main data and measurement challenges associated with this type of population; illustrates selected empirical findings that have emerged from the recent literature; and provides an overview of the substantial effort that humanitarian and development organizations are currently undertaking to close this historical gap in poverty measurement.

Women holding basket of corn. Mexico. Photo: © Curt Carnemark / World Bank

Estimating Food Price Inflation from Partial Surveys

2021

The paper highlights the new price monitoring capabilities using surveys from the World Food Programme (WFP) gathered in 25 fragile and conflict-affected countries. The capacity to monitor inflation continues to be severely limited by challenges related to data gathering that include such issues as lack of resources, loss of access to markets, or disturbances in ground operations during crises and conflict outbreaks.
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COVID-19 Outbreaks in Refugee Camps

2021

The paper illustrates the results of a series of simulations of the spread of COVID-19 disease in refugee camps using a demo set of data from the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan. The purpose of this exercise is to illustrate the type of information that can assist the UNHCR and camps’ administrators in preparing for a COVID-19 outbreak. This paper is in a preprint stage, and has not been peer-reviewed. 

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The Impact of Forced Displacement on Host Communities: A Review of the Empirical Literature in Economics

2020

This paper reviews 49 empirical studies that estimate the impact of forced displacement on host communities, including impact on wages, employment, household well-being, labor markets among others.

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Estimating Poverty among Refugee Populations : A Cross-Survey Imputation Exercise

2020

This paper tests the performance of cross-survey imputation methods to estimate poverty for a sample of refugees in Chad, by combining United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees surveys and administrative data.

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The Economics of Forced Displacement: An Introduction

2016

This paper provides a first non-technical introduction to the economics of forced displacement and argues that the modeling of utility, choice, risk, and information in a short-term setting is the key to address the problem.

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Living Conditions and Settlement Decisions of Recent Afghan Returnees

2019

This study uses existing data sources and complements them with new data to understand the socioeconomic characteristics of Afghan returnees, and the drivers of the decision to return.

 

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Optimal Targeting under Budget Constraints in a Humanitarian Context

2019

As humanitarian organizations operate under increasing budget constraints and demands for efficiency, this paper shows that using Receiver Operating Characteristic can optimize targeted coverage, and increase overall efficiency of a program.

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Risk Preferences and the Decision to Flee Conflict

2018

This paper proposes to model the drivers that impact the choice between living under conflict and the decision to flee.

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Social Cohesion and Forced Displacement

2018

This review aims to contribute toward a stronger conceptual and practical understanding of social cohesion in the context of forced displacement and includes reflection on the current portfolio of WBG forced displacement projects.

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FORTHCOMING FOCUS PAPERS

Determinants of Perceptions toward Refugees among Lebanon’s Poorest Households

Forthcoming

Even as there is no strong evidence of the negative economic impact of hosting refugees, there are strong perceptions among host communities that refugees bring economic harm. This paper will  measure the anti-refugee sentiment and explore its predictors among a population that the literature suggests could be economically harmed by the influx of refugees—namely low-skilled poor who mainly work in informal sectors.

The Effect of Internal Displacement on Social Norms of Hosting Communities: Evidence for Nigeria

Forthcoming

The Boko Haram insurgency led to unprecedented levels of violence and internal displacement in Nigeria. This paper analyzes the impact of displacement on the social norms in host communities, with a special focus on women empowerment, contraceptive use, and violence against female household members.