Forcible Displacement
“Reexamining the Effect of Refugees on Civil Conflict” American Political Science Review 115.4 (2021): 1175-1196.
As the number of forcibly displaced individuals around the world continues to reach record highs, understanding how their presence affects conflict is a major outstanding academic and policy question. Using new geo-coded data on refugee locations and civil conflict sites at the subnational level from 1989 to 2008, this project focuses on the effects of refugees on the likelihood of civil conflict where they settle.
Principal Researcher(s): Yang-Yang Zhou, Andrew Shaver
The world faces a forcible displacement crisis. Across the world, tens of millions of individuals have been forced from their homes and across international boundaries. The causes and consequences of refugee flows are, therefore, the subjects of significant social science inquiry. Unfortunately, historical lack of reliable data on actual refugee flows has significantly limited empirical inferences on these topics. Using data newly released by the United Nations
on annual dyadic flows, we replicate approximately thirty studies published in economics and political science journals on the causes and consequences of these flows. We extend many of these.
(Minor Revise at the American Political Science Review)
Principal Researcher(s): Andrew Shaver, Benjamin Krick
Co-Author(s): Judy Blancaflor, Sarah Yein Ku, Xavier Liu, Ghassan Samara, Shengkuo Hu, Martha Carreon, Trisha Lim, Rachel Raps, Alyssa Velasquez, Joshua Angelo, Sofia de Melo, Zhanyi Zuo
Refugee Hosting, protests, and LOW-LEVEL violence
This project explores the relationship between refugees and low-level political (and potentially other) violence in the countries/communities within which they settle.
Principal Researcher(s): Andrew Shaver, Yang-Yang Zhou
Determinants of Displacement
A large body of scholarship explores the determinants of forcible displacement and refugees' decision to return home. In this project, we reconsider these relationships, making both theoretical and empirical contributions. On the former, we propose a shift from the oft-referenced push-pull framework to one that additionally accounts directly for both restrictions on movement as well as diversionary flows. For instance, while much academic and policy focus concerns the potential effects of a changing global climate on displacement, our work explores the potential immobilizing effects of severe weather and natural disasters in preventing (rather than prompting) international flows. On the latter, we 1) use newly released data on refugee flows to analyze the determinants of displacement in a manner heretofore not possible; and 2) develop various fine-grained measures derived from satellite imagery and other data sources to carry out macro-empirical testing using variables with precise micro-foundations.
Principal Researcher(s): Andrew Shaver, Benjamin Krick, Teagan Zuniga
Co-Author(s): Kai Bauer-Seeley, Isabella Caldarelli, Dheera Dusanapudi, Andrea Infante, Aaron Liow, Yasmine Lunar, Brian McCarthy