The Effect of Initial Location Assignment on Healthcare Utilization of Refugees

Shobhit Kulshreshtha

No 1622, GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Abstract: Characteristics of a place, such as healthcare access and the local environment, influence healthcare utilization. Refugees resettled in developed countries are often assigned locations based on the host country's assignment policies, yet the impact of initial placement on their healthcare usage remains understudied. I use Dutch administrative data to examine the effect of conditions in the initial municipality on healthcare utilization of refugees, leveraging the random assignment of refugees. Being assigned to a municipality with a higher healthcare utilization as measured by depression medication usage, hospital visits, and general practitioner costs among non-refugees increases healthcare utilization of refugees. I provide suggestive evidence on possible mechanisms and find that local healthcare access and socio-economic status of the municipality play an important role in healthcare utilization of refugees. This study contributes to the ongoing policy debates on providing separate and more targeted healthcare services for the refugee population.

Keywords: refugees; healthcare utilization; place effects; quasi-experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 I18 J15 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hea and nep-mig
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:glodps:1622

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