Is a refugee crisis a housing crisis? Only if housing supply is unresponsive

What are the impacts of large inflows of refugees on refugee-hosting housing markets? We examine the effects of the arrival of 1.3 million Syrian refugees on the housing expenditures and income of Jordanian nationals. For this purpose, we exploit that refugees disproportionately locate around the th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of development economics 2021-01, Vol.148, p.102563, Article 102563
Main Authors: Rozo, Sandra V., Sviatschi, Micaela
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Forced migration
Housing markets
Refugees
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:What are the impacts of large inflows of refugees on refugee-hosting housing markets? We examine the effects of the arrival of 1.3 million Syrian refugees on the housing expenditures and income of Jordanian nationals. For this purpose, we exploit that refugees disproportionately locate around the three largest refugee camps after the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011. Larger refugee inflows are reflected in two main trends: higher housing expenditures of all Jordanians and increments in rental income of individuals that own real estate property. The effects are explained by the large spike in rental prices that resulted from the higher demand for housing units and the unresponsive housing supply in refugee-hosting areas. •The arrival of 1.3 million refugees to Jordan induced larger housing expenditures for Jordanian nationals.•The large refugee inflows also increased rental and property income for highly educated individuals.•Higher housing expenditures are explained by a price spike, a sharp increment in demand, and an unresponsive supply.
ISSN:0304-3878
1872-6089
DOI:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2020.102563