Shobhit Kulshreshtha (visiting PhD student from Tilburg University) will present  

Title: The Effect of Initial Location Assignment on Healthcare Utilization of Refugees

 Abstract: Characteristics of a place, such as healthcare access and the local environment, influence healthcare utilization. Refugees resettled in developed countries are often assigned locations based on the host country’s assignment policies, yet the impact of initial placement on their healthcare usage remains understudied. I use Dutch administrative data to examine the effect of conditions in the initial municipality on healthcare utilization of refugees, leveraging the random assignment of refugees. I show that 10% of the total variation in hospital visits among refugees can be explained by municipality effects. Additionally, being assigned to a municipality with a higher hospital visit rate among non-refugees increases a refugee’s probability of hospital visits. There is significant heterogeneity in the results for other measures, such as depression medication use and general practitioner costs. This study highlights the role of local healthcare access in shaping healthcare usage among refugees, contributing to policy debates aiming to provide separate and more targeted healthcare services for this vulnerable population at the municipality level.