BLOG: Unemployment, Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and the 2008 Financial Crisis – An Analysis using Structural VAR and Dynamic Panel Models

Sarah von Bargen, Columbia University

This paper analyzes the relationships between refugee and asylum seeker flows, unemployment rates, and suicide rates using both structural vector autoregression and dynamic panel models. Specifically, structural VAR is initially used for analyzing data from 1980-2018 in the United States, and a random effects dynamic panel model is utilized for analyzing post-2008 financial crisis data of these four variables in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. Continue reading BLOG: Unemployment, Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and the 2008 Financial Crisis – An Analysis using Structural VAR and Dynamic Panel Models

Analyzing the Effects of Unemployment on Political Polarization in New York State

By Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service

In this empirical research I attempt to investigate possible causation between the level of unemployment and the level of political polarization in New York State by county. I hypothesize that the increase in unemployment will lead to higher levels of political polarization following the intuition of political fanaticism grounded on economic distress. Continue reading Analyzing the Effects of Unemployment on Political Polarization in New York State