Tommy Andersson
Professor
Placement Optimization in Refugee Resettlement
Författare
Summary, in English
Every year, tens of thousands of refugees are resettled to dozens of host countries. Although there is growing evidence that the initial placement of refugee families profoundly affects their lifetime outcomes, there have been few attempts to optimize resettlement decisions. We integrate machine learning and integer optimization into an innovative software tool, Annie™ Matching and Outcome Optimization for Refugee Empowerment (Annie™ Moore), that assists a U.S. resettlement agency with matching refugees to their initial placements. Our software suggests optimal placements while giving substantial autonomy to the resettlement staff to fine-tune recommended matches, thereby streamlining their resettlement operations. Initial back testing indicates that Annie™ can improve short-run employment outcomes by 22%–38%. We conclude by discussing several directions for future work.
Avdelning/ar
- Nationalekonomiska institutionen
Publiceringsår
2021-03-24
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
1468-1486
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Operations Research
Volym
69
Issue
5
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
Inst Operations Research Management Sciences
Ämne
- Economics
Nyckelord
- refugee resettlement
- matching
- integer optimization
- machine learning
- humanitarian operations
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 0030-364X