Linea Hasager forsvarer sin ph.d.-afhandling

Linea Hasager forsvarer sin ph.d.-afhandling :"Essays in Migration Economics: A Host Country Perspective on Receiving and Integrating Immigrants

Kandidat

Linea Hasager

Titel:"Essays in Migration Economics: A Host Country Perspective on Receiving and Integrating Immigrants"

Tid og sted:

24. november 2020 kl. 13:00. i CSS 26.2.21. Link til at logge på overværelse af forsvaret følger her:https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/9536476672

Bedømmelsesudvalg

  • Associate Professsor Nicolaj Harmon, Økonomisk Institut, Københavns Universitet, Danmark (formand)
  • Professor Tommasso Frattine, University of Milan, Italien
  • Senior Researcher Oddbjørn Raaum, Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research, Norge

Abstract 

The Ph.D. dissertation consists of four self-contained chapters focused on how host countries absorb immigrants into society. Chapter 1 studies the health consequences of living in a low-income neighborhood. We exploit a Spatial Dispersal Policy, which resettled refugees quasi-randomly across Danish neighborhoods, which allows us to separate causal impacts from selection into neighborhoods. We show that living in the poorest third of neighborhoods significantly increases the risk of developing a lifestyle related disease. Our findings suggest that the development of lifestyle related diseases is caused by interaction with immediate neighbors along with the characteristics of the small geographical area, whereas differences in individual income, access to health care and the presence of ethnic networks appear less important. 

Chapter 2 is concerned with how language training and economic work incentives affect refugees’ economic and social integration. We study an expansion of language training for refugees using a Regression Discontinuity Design. A subgroup also experienced a temporary reduction in welfare benefits. The expanded language training resulted in a significant increase in long-term employment and earnings, while the temporary benefit reduction had no impact on labor market outcomes. However, the reduced welfare benefits caused shoplifting in supermarkets to increase in the first year. Moreover, the policy had positive spillovers on the next generation. 

In chapter 3 I study how integration of female refugees is affected by their type of residence permit using an Event Study approach. If family-reunified women are recognized as refugees, their employment, earnings and divorce rates increase, while the risk of being subject to intimate partner violence decreases. The findings from my empirical analysis are consistent with the predictions from a model of household bargaining.

The fourth chapter documents the role of labor market institutions in affecting the wage impacts of immigration using a cross-country meta-analytic approach. Our results suggest that higher labor market rigidity mitigates the effect on relative wages of native workers with skills most similar to immigrants, but exacerbates the impacts on average earnings in the economy.