American Economic Journal:
Economic Policy
ISSN 1945-7731 (Print) | ISSN 1945-774X (Online)
Refugee Benefit Cuts
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
(pp. 406–41)
Abstract
This paper analyzes the effects of Denmark's Start Aid welfare reform that targets refugees. Implemented in 2002, it enables us to study not only the reform's immediate effects but also its longer-term consequences and its repeal a decade later. The reform-induced large transfer cuts led to an increase in employment rates, but only in the short run. Overall, the reform increased poverty rates and led to a rise in subsistence crime. Moreover, local demand conditions generate substantial heterogeneity in the reform's effects on immediate and longer-term employment.Citation
Dustmann, Christian, Rasmus Landersø, and Lars Højsgaard Andersen. 2024. "Refugee Benefit Cuts." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 16 (2): 406–41. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20220062Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I32 Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
- I38 Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- J64 Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
- K42 Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law