In Simple Words
Imagine two runners in a race. The local runner already has proper shoes and runs at full speed but faces limited job openings. The guest runner is wearing heavy boots (liquidity constraints and past displacement shocks). Giving both runners a small grant for new running shoes helps the guest runner dramatically increase their speed, whereas it makes no difference to the local runner who already had good shoes.
Syrian refugee jobseekers in Jordan
- Basic flyer and JOD 4
- Group used for comparison
- Basic support plus JOD 65 grant
- Employment 3.8 percentage points higher
Syrian subgroup, four months. Estimated gain; uncertain after adjustment for multiple tests (q = 0.081). Nationality differences were not tested.
See source →Research question
Active labor market programs often treat host-country citizens and displaced refugees as facing identical job search barriers. However, baseline liquidity constraints, search intensity, and legal vulnerabilities differ systematically, causing uniform interventions to produce starkly heterogeneous outcomes.
Participants
N = 3,770 jobseekers (1,663 Syrian refugees and 2,107 Jordanians) in urban Jordan.
Study Design
Comparative RCT evaluating cash, information, and nudge interventions across host nationals and refugees at 2-month and 4-month follow-ups.
Results
Cash transfers increased Syrian wage employment by 5.2 percentage points at 2 months (p = 0.017) and 3.8 percentage points at 4 months (p = 0.027), while raising earnings by 65%. In contrast, cash had no significant effect on Jordanians (-0.007 at 2 months, -0.025 at 4 months), as Jordanians had 25% higher baseline daily expenditure, searched 30% more intensely, and filed twice as many job applications in the control group.
Takeaway
Evaluate baseline search intensity and liquidity metrics separately for host national and refugee populations before deploying active labor market assistance to avoid misallocating funds.
Source and citation
See source →Read alongside the research
Plain-English glossary
Original explanations, informed by the references below. Examples are illustrations, not data from the studies above. The research text stays unchanged.
- Baseline
The starting measurements in a study. Researchers use these to compare what participants were like at the start with what happens later.
ExampleBefore a training programme starts, researchers measure workers’ earnings. That first measurement is the baseline.
GET-IT glossary · Baseline characteristics ↗Read more about baseline →- Percentage points
The difference between two percentages.
ExampleA rise from 40% to 50% is 10 percentage points. Relative to the starting value, that is a 25% increase.
Office for National Statistics · Percentages ↗Read more about percentage points →- Randomized controlled trial
A study that uses chance, like drawing lots, to decide who receives each option being compared. Researchers compare the groups’ outcomes to estimate the effect of those options.
ExampleA lottery assigns volunteers to a training programme or a comparison group. Researchers then compare their outcomes.
GET-IT glossary · Randomized study ↗Read more about randomized controlled trial →