Centralized refugee matching mechanisms with hierarchical priority classes

Dilek Sayedahmed ()
Additional contact information
Dilek Sayedahmed: University of Waterloo

The Journal of Mechanism and Institution Design, 2022, vol. 7, issue 1, 71-111

Abstract: This study examines the refugee reallocation problem by modeling it as a two-sided matching problem between countries and refugees. Based on forced hierarchical priority classes, I study two interesting refugee matching algorithms to match refugees with countries. Axioms for fairness measures in resource allocation are presented by considering the stability and fairness properties of the matching algorithms. Two profiles are explicitly modeled -- country preferences and forced prioritization of refugee families by host countries. This approach shows that the difference between the profiles creates blocking pairs of countries and refugee families owing to the forced hierarchical priority classes. Since the forced priorities for countries can cause certain refugees to linger in a lower priority class in every country, this study highlights the importance of considering refugees' preferences. It also suggests that a hierarchical priority class-based approach without category-specific quotas can increase countries' willingness to solve the refugee reallocation problem.

Keywords: Stability; deferred acceptance algorithm; refugee studies. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C78 D47 D78 I30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.mechanism-design.org/arch/v007-1/p_03.pdf (application/pdf)

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:jmi:articl:jmi-v7i1a3

DOI: 10.22574/jmid.2022.12.003

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in The Journal of Mechanism and Institution Design from Society for the Promotion of Mechanism and Institution Design, University of York Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Paul Schweinzer ().