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Immigration, job vacancies, and Beveridge Curve: Evidence from Syrian refugees in Turkey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2023

Nazire Begen Open the ORCID record for Nazire Begen [Opens in a new window] ,
Murat A. Mercan Open the ORCID record for Murat A. Mercan [Opens in a new window]  and
Hande Barlin Open the ORCID record for Hande Barlin [Opens in a new window]
Nazire Begen
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Gebze Technical University, Kocaeli, Turkey
Murat A. Mercan
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Yıldız Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey
Hande Barlin*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Gebze Technical University, Kocaeli, Turkey
*
*Corresponding author. Email: hbarlin@gtu.edu.tr
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Abstract

This study investigates the impact of the massive and unexpected influx of Syrian refugees on the job vacancy rates (JVRs) and job-finding rates (JFRs) in Turkey between 2009–2015 and 2009–2018. We employed the instrumental variable approach to address potential endogeneity issues. While we found no significant causal impact of the Syrian refugees on JVR, they decreased JFR between 2009 and 2018. A reduction in JFR indicates that the Beveridge Curve shifted inwards, thereby raising matching efficiency and facilitating an improvement in labour market conditions. Furthermore, our research indicated differences in coefficients and significance in JVR and JFR across occupations, as well as different effects in these areas between the short and long term. However, the results demonstrate that the rapid and unexpected influx of Syrian refugees alleviated JVR and JFR in most of the occupation groups.

Keywords

Beveridge Curvejob vacancy ratesjob-finding ratesSyrian refugeesJ21J63J64J61
Type
Original Article
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , June 2023 , pp. 279 - 298
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of UNSW Canberra

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