Author
Aygün, A., Kırdar, M. G., Tuncay Alpanda, Berna
Publication Date
2021-12
Publication Place
-
Elsevier
Subject
Refugees, Health care resources, Native mortality, Infant, Child, Elderly, Instrumental variables
Type
Periodical
Language
English
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Library
Özyeğin University
Library Asset ID
0167-6296
Record ID
6927a4ae-27a6-4600-9b2f-d953c7dabe44
Library Location
Economics
Date
2021-12
Sample Text
As of the end of 2017, 3.4 million Syrian refugees lived in Turkey. These refugees left a country where the health system was utterly broken. Several studies report that Syrian refugees faced numerous diseases during their exodus, brought certain infectious diseases to the hosting communities, and have a high incidence of health care utilization. Moreover, they have much higher fertility rates than natives. We examine the effect of Syrian refugees on the health care resources in Turkey and on natives’ mortality—with a focus on infant, child, and elderly mortality. Our OLS results yield suggestive evidence of an adverse effect of the refugee shock on infant and child mortality. However, we find that this is a result of endogenous settlement patterns of refugees. Once we account for the endogeneity using a plausibly exogenous instrument, we find no evidence of an effect on native mortality for any age group. We also analyze the refugees’ pressure on the health care services in Turkey and the government's response to understand our findings on mortality outcomes.
DOI
10.1016/j.jhealeco.2021.102534
Cilt
80
