Date of Award

Fall 2022

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

Moore School of Business

First Advisor

Jessica Brown

Abstract

An empirical study, this paper examines the relationship of pre-resettlement refugee characteristics on their respective economic outcomes post-resettlement. In particular, it places special focus on the correlation that a refugee’s level of trauma and duration of statelessness, or time spent in a temporary country of asylum, have with that refugee’s real wages, probability of being employed at 180 days post-resettlement, and duration of initial unemployment in the country of final resettlement. Through the development of three sets of models, this paper finds a quadratic relationship between the length of a refugee’s statelessness and real wages post-resettlement, where increases in duration of statelessness initially lead to decreases in real wages. It also finds an oppositely related quadratic relationship between length of statelessness and probability of employment within 180 days as well as a negative correlation between duration of statelessness and duration of initial unemployment. Meanwhile higher levels of trauma have some evidence supporting a negative relationship with real wages while at the same time may lead to decreased duration of unemployment. Multiple postulations are made as to why these relationships occur, citing the likelihood of statelessness and trauma leading to a depreciation in human capital and the potentiality that longer statelessness and higher trauma drive an increased willingness to accept initial employment.

Rights

© 2022, Seth Hershberger

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