Short-term effects of forced displacement on host communities: evidence from the Rohingya crisis

Juan Segnana and Jose Endara

No 4410, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers from Asociación Argentina de Economía Política

Abstract: This paper provides detailed evidence on the short-term economic effects of the large and localized Rohingya migratory shock on the Bangladeshi host population. The analysis shows the welfare impact of changes in prices of goods on the host community due to the large population influx. Rice prices are significantly higher short after the population shock started but this does not extend to other food items. Rice is a prevalent staple in the consumption bundle of hosts, rice inflation underlies a great deal of variations in welfare. We have evidence of distributional effects due to variation in relative prices. We register large price variations for the main items consumed by Rohingyas and hosts right after the influx began. Our results show an immediate and temporary welfare loss for the bottom quintile which was eliminated and reversed due to a large food aid provided by the World Food Program (WFP) together with highly integrated markets. We consider humanitarian food aid in contexts alike crucial as a smoothing mechanism of demand-pull inflation.

Keywords: Consumption; Food aid; Forced migration; Forced displacement; Host communities; Prices; Rohingyas; Welfare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 F22 O15 P46 R2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2020-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-mig
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aep:anales:4410

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