A Sense of No Future in an Uncertain Present: Altruism and Risk-Seeking among Syrian Refugees in Jordan

Nora El-Bialy, Elisa Fraile Aranda, Andreas Nicklisch, Lamis Saleh and Stefan Voigt

No 41, ILE Working Paper Series from University of Hamburg, Institute of Law and Economics

Abstract: An unprecedented number of refugees from Syria has sought refuge in both the Middle East and Europe since the beginning of the civil war in Syria in 2011. We analyze the level of altruism and risk-seeking among Syrian civil war victims in Jordan. We find systematic variations in their revealed levels of altruism and their willingness to accept risk: feeling as if having no future coincides with both more egoistic and more risk-seeking behavior. Refugees' behavioral responses and their sense of no future correlate with their current personal living experiences. Our findings suggest that both the sense of no future and the accompanying behavioral responses are primarily associated with miserable current living conditions rather than with experiences directly related to the civil war in Syria. Policy implications of these findings seem straightforward: Policy makers need to provide additional assistance for facilitating family reunion.

Keywords: experiments; altruism; risk-seeking; psychological distress; migration; civil war (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C92 D64 D81 D91 F22 H56 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:ilewps:41

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