Emil Libak Simonsen defends his PhD thesis at the Department of Economics
Candidate:
Emil Anton Libak Simonsen, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen
Title:
Essays in Migration Economics: Employers, Cross-Border Commuting, and Refugee Integration
Supervisor:
- Jakob Roland Munch, Professor, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen
Assessment Committee:
- Mette Foged, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen
- Jan Stuhler, Professor, Department of Economics, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
- Olof Åslund, Professor, Department of Economics, Uppsala University
Summary:
This Ph.D. dissertation consists of three self-contained chapters. Although the chapters address different research questions and apply different methodologies, they are all fundamentally concerned with people crossing national borders. The common themes are the effects on receiving economies and how the places where migrants settle shape their integration outcomes. Two chapters examine the integration of adult and child refugees, respectively, while the third studies the effects of cross-border commuters on hiring firms and their co-workers.
Chapter 1: Employers and Refugee Economic Integration: The Effect of Early Employer Quality
With Alessandro Caiumi
The first chapter studies how employers and workplace social networks shape refugee integration. Using a quasi-random dispersal policy in Denmark, it shows that refugees achieve better outcomes when they are placed in municipalities where co-nationals work for high-quality employers. These effects improve employment and earnings for up to ten years after arrival and remain robust across a wide range of checks. A policy simulation further suggests that incorporating this information into dispersal decisions could increase short-run employment probabilities by 46 percent relative to the actual allocation.
Chapter 2: Knowledge Spillovers from Cross Border Commuters: Evidence from a Natural Experiment
with Björn Thor Arnarson, Jakob R. Munch, and Morten Olsen
This chapter studies how cross-border commuting transmits knowledge across countries. Exploiting the opening of the Øresund Bridge, which sharply increased commuting from Sweden to Denmark, it shows that Danish firms employing more Swedish commuters experience higher productivity. It also finds positive wage effects for incumbent Danish coworkers, particularly when the commuters are high-skilled or have experience in high-tech occupations, consistent with knowledge spillovers.
Chapter 3: Randomized to Opportunity: Measuring Place Effects for Refugee Children
with N. Meltem Daysal, Joseph J. Doyle, Jr., Naeim S. Samandari, and Mircea Trandafir
The final chapter studies how local economic opportunity shapes the long-run outcomes of refugee children. Using Denmark’s quasi-random refugee dispersal policy, it shows that children placed in higher-opportunity municipalities achieve better outcomes in adulthood, including higher income and employment, as well as lower rates of crime, foster care placement, and teenage motherhood. The opportunity measures also predict better outcomes for refugee parents, suggesting that where refugee families are placed has lasting consequences.
An electronic copy of the dissertation can be requested here: lema@econ.ku.dk