TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Balkan, Binnur
AU  - Tok, Elif Ozcan
AU  - Torun, Huzeyfe
AU  - Tumen, Semih
        TI  - Immigration, Housing Rents, and Residential Segregation: Evidence from Syrian Refugees in Turkey
        PY  - 2018/Jun/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 11611
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp11611
        AB  - The massive inflow of Syrian refugees is argued to drastically affect various social and economic outcomes in the hosting countries and regions. In this paper, we use micro-level data to investigate whether the Syrian refugee inflows have affected the market for housing rentals in Turkey. The unexpected arrival of a large number of refugees due to civil conflict in Syria is used to construct a quasi-experimental design. Since the construction of new housing units takes a long time, refugee inflow resembles a positive demand shock to the sector.
We find that the refugee inflows have led to an increase in the rents of higher-quality housing units, while there is no statistically significant effect in the rents of lower-quality units. This finding supports a residential segregation story, which suggests that the refugee wave has increased the demand for native-dominant neighborhoods with better amenities especially among natives. We argue that negative attitudes towards refugees – potentially due to refugee-native conflict along several dimensions – may be generating this result.
        KW  - Syrian refugees
KW  - immigration
KW  - housing rents
KW  - quasi-experimental design
KW  - Turkey
        ER  -