The Economics of Forced Displacement : An Introduction

Verme, Paolo

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: FORCED MIGRATION;    FORCED DISPLACEMENT;    INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS;    CONFLICT;    REFUGEES;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8038
RP-ID  :  WPS8038

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Forced displacement -- defined as thedisplacement of refugees and internally displaced personsdue to violence -- has reached an unprecedented scale andglobal attention during the past few years, particularly inthe aftermath of the Syrian refugee crisis in 2011 and theEuropean Union's migration crisis in 2015. As thisplight gained momentum, economics found itself unprepared toanswer the basic questions surrounding refugees andinternally displaced persons. Few economists or institutionswere working on forced displacement. Economic theory orempirics had little to offer in articles published injournals. Data were scarce, unreliable, or inaccessible. Caneconomics rise to the challenge? Is the economics of forceddisplacement different from neoclassical economics? Canoff-the-shelves models be used to study forced displacedpopulations? What is missing to do the economics of forceddisplacement? What are the data constraints that limiteconomists in this work? This paper provides a firstnontechnical introduction to these topics. The paper arguesthat the modeling of utility, choice, risk, and informationin a short-term setting is the key to address the problem.Neoclassical economics lacks some of the theoreticalingredients that are needed, but recent developments in gametheory, neuroeconomics, and behavioral economics have openednew horizons that make the task of modeling forceddisplacement within reach. Empirics is clearly limited bythe scarcity of quality data, but an example shows howwelfare economists can start working with existing data.Economists have no excuse to maintain the status quo andshould get on with the work on forced displacement.