IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/regeco/v105y2024ics0166046223001102.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Root growing and path dependence in location choice: Evidence from Danish refugee placement

Author

Listed:
  • Farrokhi, Farid
  • Jinkins, David

Abstract

Does spending time in a location cause a person to stay there longer? We use a 1999 change in Danish refugee settlement policy to address this question. The policy change strongly encouraged refugees to stay in their assigned settlement municipality for at least three years. Using empirical designs for natural experiments, we find that treated refugees were more likely to be in their assigned location many years after their residence was granted. In a difference-in-differences specification, treated refugees were 4.8 percentage points more likely to remain in their first commuting zone 13 years later. A regression discontinuity design delivers a larger but less precise point estimate.

Suggested Citation

  • Farrokhi, Farid & Jinkins, David, 2024. "Root growing and path dependence in location choice: Evidence from Danish refugee placement," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:regeco:v:105:y:2024:i:c:s0166046223001102
    DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2023.103975
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166046223001102
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2023.103975?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jakob Roland Munch & Michael Rosholm & Michael Svarer, 2006. "Are Homeowners Really More Unemployed?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(514), pages 991-1013, October.
    2. Dalgaard, Carl-Johan & Kaarsen, Nicolai & Olsson, Ola & Selaya, Pablo, 2018. "Roman Roads to Prosperity: Persistence and Non-Persistence of Public Goods Provision," Working Papers in Economics 722, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    3. Azlor, Luz & Damm, Anna Piil & Schultz-Nielsen, Marie Louise, 2020. "Local labour demand and immigrant employment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    4. Sascha O. Becker & Irena Grosfeld & Pauline Grosjean & Nico Voigtländer & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, 2020. "Forced Migration and Human Capital: Evidence from Post-WWII Population Transfers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(5), pages 1430-1463, May.
    5. David H. Autor & David Dorn & Gordon H. Hanson, 2015. "Untangling Trade and Technology: Evidence from Local Labour Markets," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(584), pages 621-646, May.
    6. Christian Dustmann & Francesco Fasani & Tommaso Frattini & Luigi Minale & Uta Schönberg, 2017. "On the economics and politics of refugee migration," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 32(91), pages 497-550.
    7. John Kennan & James R. Walker, 2011. "The Effect of Expected Income on Individual Migration Decisions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(1), pages 211-251, January.
    8. Per-Anders Edin & Peter Fredriksson & Olof Åslund, 2003. "Ethnic Enclaves and the Economic Success of Immigrants—Evidence from a Natural Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 329-357.
    9. Mike Zabek, 2024. "Local Ties in Spatial Equilibrium," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 287-317, April.
    10. Anna Piil Damm & Christian Dustmann, 2014. "Does Growing Up in a High Crime Neighborhood Affect Youth Criminal Behavior?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(6), pages 1806-1832, June.
    11. Baum-Snow, Nathaniel & Ferreira, Fernando, 2015. "Causal Inference in Urban and Regional Economics," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 3-68, Elsevier.
    12. Mette Foged & Giovanni Peri, 2016. "Immigrants' Effect on Native Workers: New Analysis on Longitudinal Data," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 1-34, April.
    13. Piil Damm, Anna, 2005. "The Danish Dispersal Policy on Refugee Immigrants 1986-1998: A Natural Experiment?," Working Papers 05-3, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics.
    14. Hoyt Bleakley & Jeffrey Lin, 2012. "Portage and Path Dependence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(2), pages 587-644.
    15. Jacob Nielsen Arendt & Christian Dustmann & Hyejin Ku, 2022. "Refugee migration and the labour market: lessons from 40 years of post-arrival policies in Denmark," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 38(3), pages 531-556.
    16. Patrick Coate & Kyle Mangum, 2019. "Fast Locations and Slowing Labor Mobility," Working Papers 19-49, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    17. Enrico Moretti, 2014. "Local Economic Development, Agglomeration Economies, and the Big Push: 100 Years of Evidence from the Tennessee Valley Authority," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(1), pages 275-331.
    18. Eckert, Fabian & Hejlesen, Mads & Walsh, Conor, 2022. "The return to big-city experience: Evidence from refugees in Denmark," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    19. Jérôme Adda & Christian Dustmann & Joseph-Simon Görlach, 2022. "The Dynamics of Return Migration, Human Capital Accumulation, and Wage Assimilation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(6), pages 2841-2871.
    20. Emi Nakamura & Jósef Sigurdsson & Jón Steinsson, 2022. "The Gift of Moving: Intergenerational Consequences of a Mobility Shock," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(3), pages 1557-1592.
    21. Donald R. Davis & David E. Weinstein, 2002. "Bones, Bombs, and Break Points: The Geography of Economic Activity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1269-1289, December.
    22. Sebastian Calonico & Matias D. Cattaneo & Rocio Titiunik, 2014. "Robust Nonparametric Confidence Intervals for Regression‐Discontinuity Designs," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82, pages 2295-2326, November.
    23. Trevor Tombe & Xiaodong Zhu, 2019. "Trade, Migration, and Productivity: A Quantitative Analysis of China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(5), pages 1843-1872, May.
    24. Miguel, Edward & Roland, Gérard, 2011. "The long-run impact of bombing Vietnam," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 1-15, September.
    25. Bosker, Maarten & Brakman, Steven & Garretsen, Harry & Schramm, Marc, 2007. "Looking for multiple equilibria when geography matters: German city growth and the WWII shock," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 152-169, January.
    26. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "History and Industry Location: The Case of the Manufacturing Belt," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 80-83, May.
    27. repec:oup:qjecon:v:129:y:2013:i:1:p:275-331 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stephen J. Redding & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2017. "Quantitative Spatial Economics," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 21-58, September.
    2. David Cuberes & Rafael González-Val, 2017. "The effect of the Spanish Reconquest on Iberian cities," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 58(3), pages 375-416, May.
    3. Jacob Nielsen Arendt & Christian Dustmann & Hyejin Ku, 2022. "Refugee migration and the labour market: lessons from 40 years of post-arrival policies in Denmark," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 38(3), pages 531-556.
    4. Berger, Thor & Enflo, Kerstin, 2017. "Locomotives of local growth: The short- and long-term impact of railroads in Sweden," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 124-138.
    5. Hanlon, W.Walker & Heblich, Stephan, 2022. "History and urban economics," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    6. Eder, Christoph & Halla, Martin & Hilmbauer-Hofmarcher, Philipp, 2024. "The Long-Term Effects of Military Occupations: Evidence from Post-World War II Austria," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 366, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    7. Testa, Patrick A., 2021. "Shocks and the spatial distribution of economic activity: The role of institutions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 791-810.
    8. Gan Jin & Günther G. Schulze, 2024. "Historical Legacies and Urbanization: Evidence from Chinese Concessions," CESifo Working Paper Series 10976, CESifo.
    9. Philipp Ager & Casper Worm Hansen & Lars Lønstrup, 2015. "Shaking up the Equilibrium: Natural Disasters, Immigration and Economic Geography," Discussion Papers 15-17, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    10. Tommaso Giommoni & Gabriel Loumeau, 2022. "Taxation with a Grain of Salt: The Long-Term Effect of Fiscal Policy on Local Development," CESifo Working Paper Series 9997, CESifo.
    11. Xu, Hangtian, 2016. "Multiple Equilibria in the Urban Spatial Structure: Evidence from the Hanshin Earthquake," MPRA Paper 75219, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Lin, Jeffrey & Rauch, Ferdinand, 2022. "What future for history dependence in spatial economics?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    13. Fuchs-Schündeln, N. & Hassan, T.A., 2016. "Natural Experiments in Macroeconomics," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 923-1012, Elsevier.
    14. Christian Ochsner, 2023. "Hostility, Population Sorting, and Backwardness: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from the Red Army after WWII," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp768, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    15. Mikhailova, Tatiana (Михайлова, Татьяна), 2018. "Evacuation of Industry During the Great Patriotic War and the Growth of Russian Cities: Numerical Analysis [Эвакуация Промышленности В Годы Великой Отечественной Войны И Рост Городов России: Числен," Working Papers 031835, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    16. christoph Eder & Martin Halla, 2016. "The Long-lasting Shadow of the Allied Occupation of Austria on its Spatial Equilibrium," HiCN Working Papers 230, Households in Conflict Network.
    17. Twinam, Tate, 2020. "Trade Shocks and Growth: The Impact of the Quartz Crisis in Switzerland," SocArXiv twscm, Center for Open Science.
    18. Wahl, Fabian, 2016. "Does medieval trade still matter? Historical trade centers, agglomeration and contemporary economic development," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 50-60.
    19. Seidel, Tobias & von Ehrlich, Maximilian, 2014. "The persistent effects of regional policy - Evidence from the West-German Zonenrandgebiet," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100515, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    20. Siodla, James, 2017. "Clean slate: Land-use changes in San Francisco after the 1906 disaster," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 1-16.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Location choice; Path dependence; Moving costs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:regeco:v:105:y:2024:i:c:s0166046223001102. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/regec .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.