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  • November 2022
  • Article
  • American Economic Review

The Psychosocial Value of Employment: Evidence from a Refugee Camp

By: Reshmaan Hussam, Erin M. Kelley, Gregory Lane and Fatima Zahra
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:31
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Abstract

Employment may be important to wellbeing for reasons beyond its role as an income source. This paper presents a causal estimate of the psychosocial value of employment in refugee camps in Bangladesh. We involve 745 individuals in a field experiment with three arms: a control arm, a weekly cash arm, and an employment arm of equal value. Employment raises psychosocial wellbeing substantially more than cash alone, and 66% of the employed are willing to forego cash payments to continue working temporarily for free. Despite material poverty, those in our context both experience and recognize a non-monetary, psychosocial value to employment.

Keywords

Psychosocial Wellbeing; Employment; Refugees; Well-being

Citation

Hussam, Reshmaan, Erin M. Kelley, Gregory Lane, and Fatima Zahra. "The Psychosocial Value of Employment: Evidence from a Refugee Camp." American Economic Review 112, no. 11 (November 2022): 3694–3724.
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About The Author

Reshmaan N. Hussam

Business, Government and the International Economy
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More from the Authors
  • Translating Information into Action: A Public Health Experiment in Bangladesh By: Reshmaan Hussam, Kailash Pandey, Abu Shonchoy and Chikako Yamauchi
  • Bangladesh: Into the Maelstrom By: Reshmaan Hussam, Sophus A. Reinert and Jaya Y. Wen
  • Amazon and the Future of Organized Labor By: Reshmaan Hussam, Trevor Fetter and Grace Liu
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