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Portrait of Tommy Andersson. Photo.

Tommy Andersson

Professor

Portrait of Tommy Andersson. Photo.

Placement Optimization in Refugee Resettlement

Author

  • Narges Ahani
  • Tommy Andersson
  • Alessandro Martinello
  • Alexander Teytelboym
  • Andrew C. Trapp

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.

Department/s

  • Department of Economics

Publishing year

2021-03-24

Language

English

Pages

1468-1486

Publication/Series

Operations Research

Volume

69

Issue

5

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Inst Operations Research Management Sciences

Topic

  • Economics

Keywords

  • refugee resettlement
  • matching
  • integer optimization
  • machine learning
  • humanitarian operations

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0030-364X