Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Development Economics. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Development Economics, 150, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2020.102618
Accepted author manuscript, 1.38 MB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC-ND
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - A gravity analysis of refugee mobility using mobile phone data
AU - Beine, M.
AU - Bertinelli, L.
AU - Cömertpay, R.
AU - Litina, A.
AU - Maystadt, J.-F.
N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Development Economics. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Development Economics, 150, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2020.102618
PY - 2021/5/1
Y1 - 2021/5/1
N2 - The objective of this study consists in analyzing the determinants of the internal mobility of refugees in Turkey. We track down this mobility relying on geolocalized mobile phone calls data and bring these measures to a micro-founded gravity model in order to estimate the main drivers of refugee mobility across 26 regions in 2017. Our results show that the movements of refugees are sensitive to income differentials and contribute therefore to a more efficient allocation of labor across space. Comparing these findings with those of individuals with a non-refugee status, we find that refugees are more sensitive to variations of income at origin and to distance, while less responsive to changes in income at destination. These findings are robust to the way mobility is inferred from phone data and to the choice of the geographical unit of investigation. Further, we provide evidence against some alternative explanations of mobility such as the propensity to leave refugee camps, transit through Turkey, social magnet effects and sensitivity to agricultural business cycles.
AB - The objective of this study consists in analyzing the determinants of the internal mobility of refugees in Turkey. We track down this mobility relying on geolocalized mobile phone calls data and bring these measures to a micro-founded gravity model in order to estimate the main drivers of refugee mobility across 26 regions in 2017. Our results show that the movements of refugees are sensitive to income differentials and contribute therefore to a more efficient allocation of labor across space. Comparing these findings with those of individuals with a non-refugee status, we find that refugees are more sensitive to variations of income at origin and to distance, while less responsive to changes in income at destination. These findings are robust to the way mobility is inferred from phone data and to the choice of the geographical unit of investigation. Further, we provide evidence against some alternative explanations of mobility such as the propensity to leave refugee camps, transit through Turkey, social magnet effects and sensitivity to agricultural business cycles.
KW - Forced displacement
KW - Gravity model of migration
KW - Mobile phone data
KW - News media
KW - Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood
KW - Refugee mobility
KW - Meleagris gallopavo
U2 - 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2020.102618
DO - 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2020.102618
M3 - Journal article
VL - 150
JO - Journal of Development Economics
JF - Journal of Development Economics
SN - 0304-3878
M1 - 102618
ER -