Tommy Andersson
Professor
Placement Optimization in Refugee Resettlement
Author
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