Publication: Welfare Impact of Hosting Refugees in Ethiopia
Date
2021-04
ISSN
Published
2021-04
Author(s)
Ayenew, Ashenafi Belayneh
Abstract
This paper examines the welfare impact
of hosting refugees in Ethiopia, one of the largest
refugee-hosting countries worldwide. Identification comes
from a large spatial difference in within-village temporal
changes in refugee intensity, following a recent upsurge in
the flow of refugees into the country. The findings reveal
different implications depending on the type of household
welfare metric. While reducing consumption expenditure per
capita and increasing the probability of falling into
consumption poverty, hosting refugees has no effect on
wealth and the status of wealth poverty. Decomposing
consumption expenditure per capita into food, education, and
other nonfood components, the results further reveal that
hosting refugees alters the composition of consumption, as
it solely affects food consumption expenditure. The
consumption effects prevail in rural areas with no effects
in urban centers while no heterogeneity is found concerning
wealth and wealth poverty results. Key mechanisms explaining
the adverse consumption effects include displacement of
hosts from salaried employment and a spike in prices of
agricultural inputs but not changes in the extent of
societal cooperation.
Citation
“Ayenew, Ashenafi Belayneh. 2021. Welfare Impact of Hosting Refugees in Ethiopia. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9613. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/35408?show=full License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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