Mass migration and natives’ health at birth: Evidence from Syrian refugee inflows to Turkey

Siwar Khelifa

Journal of Comparative Economics, 2026, vol. 54, issue 1, 1-39

Abstract: This study examines the effects of prenatal exposure to the sudden arrival of more than three million Syrian refugees in Turkey on natives’ health at birth. The empirical strategy exploits the geographical variation in refugee intensity across provinces and employs a distance-based instrument to address endogeneity in settlement patterns. Results show that higher refugee intensity is associated with a decrease in average birth weight and an increase in the prevalence of low birth weight, along with suggestive evidence of shorter gestational length. However, no significant relationship is found with prematurity or male-selective fetal loss. These findings suggest that the health impacts of refugee inflows on host communities may emerge earlier and be more pervasive than previously recognized.

Keywords: Birth weight; Education; Ethnic conflict; Health policy; Infant health; Migration; Refugee; Syria; Turkey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 I10 I18 J13 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147596725000757
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:54:y:2026:i:1:p:1-39

DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2025.08.003

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Comparative Economics is currently edited by D. Berkowitz and G. Roland

More articles in Journal of Comparative Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().