1. |
- Ahani, Narges, et al.
(author)
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Placement Optimization in Refugee Resettlement
- 2021
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In: Operations Research. - : Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). - 0030-364X .- 1526-5463. ; 69:5, s. 1468-1486
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Every year, tens of thousands of refugees are resettled to dozens of host countries. Although there is growing evidence that the initial placement of refugee families profoundly affects their lifetime outcomes, there have been few attempts to optimize resettlement decisions. We integrate machine learning and integer optimization into an innovative software tool, Annie™ Matching and Outcome Optimization for Refugee Empowerment (Annie™ Moore), that assists a U.S. resettlement agency with matching refugees to their initial placements. Our software suggests optimal placements while giving substantial autonomy to the resettlement staff to fine-tune recommended matches, thereby streamlining their resettlement operations. Initial back testing indicates that Annie™ can improve short-run employment outcomes by 22%–38%. We conclude by discussing several directions for future work.
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2. |
- Andersson, Tommy, et al.
(author)
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Dynamic Refugee Matching
- 2018
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Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Asylum seekers are often assigned to a locality in their host country directly upon arrival based on some type of uninformed dynamic matching system which does not take the background of the asylum seekers into consideration. This paper proposes an informed, intuitive, easy-to-implement and computationally efficient dynamic mechanism for matching asylum seekers to localities. This mechanism can be adopted in any dynamic refugee matching problem given locality-specific quotas and that asylum seekers can be classified into specific types. We demonstrate that any matching selected by the proposed mechanism is Pareto efficient and that envy between localities is bounded by a single asylum seeker. Via simulation, we evaluate the performance of the proposed mechanism in settings that resemble the US and the Swedish situations, and show that our mechanism outperforms uninformed mechanisms even in presence of severe misclassification error in the estimation of asylum seeker types.
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3. |
- Bingley, Paul, et al.
(author)
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Measurement error in income and schooling, and the bias of linear estimators
- 2017
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In: Journal Labor Economics. - : University of Chicago Press. - 0734-306X .- 1537-5307. ; , s. 1117-1148
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We propose a general framework for determining the extent of measurement error bias in OLS and IV estimators of linear models, while allowing for measurement error in the validation source. We apply this method by validating Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) data with Danish administrative registers.Contrary to most validation studies, we find measurement error in income is classical, once we account for imperfect validation data. We find non-classical measurement error in schooling, causing a 38 percent amplification bias in IV estimators of the returns, with important implications for the program evaluation literature.
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4. |
- Bingley, Paul, et al.
(author)
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The Effects of Schooling on Wealth Accumulation Approaching Retirement
- 2017
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Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Education and wealth are positively correlated for individuals approaching retirement, but the direction of the causal relationship is ambiguous in theory and has not been identified in practice. We combine administrative data on individual total wealth with a reform expanding access to lower secondary school in Denmark in the 1950s, finding that schooling increases pension annuity claims but reduces the non-pension wealth of men in their 50's. These effects grow stronger as normal retirement age approaches. Labour market mechanisms are key, with schooling increasing job mobility, reducing housing equity, increasing leverage, and improving occupational pension benefits.
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5. |
- Martinello, Alessandro
(author)
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The Effect of Unexpected Inheritances on Wealth Accumulation: Precautionary Savings or Liquidity Constraints
- 2016
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Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Combining a Danish population panel of yearly administrative wealth reports with the unexpected timing of parental deaths, I show that heirs deplete the majority of their inheritance within ten years. However, while liquid assets quickly converge to their pre-inheritance levels, consistently with the predictions of a buffer-stock model of consumption, investments in housing and financial markets persist over time. Heirs exploit inheritances to accumulate housing equity if young, and precautionary savings if liquidity constrained. By estimating the causal effect of inheritance on wealth accumulation in the long run, this paper shows that specific wealth components serve different coexisting saving strategies.
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6. |
- Trapp, Andrew C., et al.
(author)
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Placement Optimization in Refugee Resettlement
- 2018
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Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Every year thousands of refugees are resettled to dozens of host countries. While there is growing evidence that the initial placement of refugee families profoundly affects their lifetime outcomes, there have been few attempts to optimize resettlement destinations. We integrate machine learning and integer optimization technologies into an innovative software tool that assists a resettlement agency in the United States with matching refugees to their initial placements. Our software suggests optimal placements while giving substantial autonomy for the resettlement staff to fine-tune recommended matches. Initial back-testing indicates that Annie can improve short-run employment outcomes by 22%-37%. We discuss several directions for future work such as incorporating multiple objectives from additional integration outcomes, dealing with equity concerns, evaluating potential new locations for resettlement, managing quota in a dynamic fashion, and eliciting refugee preferences.
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7. |
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