Wednesday, May 13, 2026 11:00 - 12:00

SAL 2.04, 2nd Floor Conference Room, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH

About this event

Economies' response to immigration depends in large part on spatial adjustment ? on the ease with which native and foreign workers are able to move across space. To accommodate large refugee inflows, many host countries operate dispersal policies that distribute new arrivals across the economy according to administrative formulas. This paper aims to study the short- and long-run effects of such inflows ? and their spatial allocation ? on both migrants and natives. The wider equilibrium effects of dispersal versus concentration depend on whether local absorption costs ? for example, in housing or labour markets ? are convex in inflow density, and on whether initial allocations persist long enough to matter. Using the German 2015 episode, we document causal effects of refugee allocation on local housing prices and a crowding-out of natives' internal migration. We aim to extend the causal analysis to the labour market and by developing a dynamic spatial model with multiple mobility frictions. The model will allow us to evaluate alternative allocation schemes and to identify which frictions ? moving costs, search frictions, or local ties ? are most relevant for the dispersal-concentration trade-off.

Participants are expected to adhere to the CEP Events Code of Conduct.

Directions

This event will take place in SAL 2.04, 2nd Floor Conference Room, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH.

The building is labelled SAL on the LSE campus map. You can also find us on Google Maps. For further information, go to contact us.

International Economics Workshops are part of the CEP's Trade programme.