French economics professor to address asylum policy in Sichel Series talk

Contact: Mark Schwerin

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—A French professor of economics will examine the refugee crisis and admission quotas when he speaks later this month at Western Michigan University as part of the Werner Sichel Lecture Series.

Dr. Hillel Rapoport, professor of economics at the Paris School of Economics, will speak at noon Wednesday, Sept. 28, in 2028 Brown Hall. His talk is titled "Tradable Refugee-Admission Quotas and Matching: Combining Physical and Financial Solidarity in Asylum Policy" and is free and open to the public. A light lunch reception will be available after the lecture.

Hillel Rapoport

In addition to his role as a professor, Rapoport is a research fellow at the IZA Institute, CESifo Economic Studies, Harvard Center for International Development, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and European University Institute's Migration Policy Center. A member of Bar-Ilan University's Department of Economics until 2013, he also has held visiting positions at Stanford University and at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Since 2008, he has been the scientific coordinator of the "Migration and Development" annual conferences jointly organized by the World Bank and the French Development Agency. His research focuses on the growth and developmental impact of migration and on the economics of immigration, diversity and refugees' relocation and resettlement.

Rapoport is the editor of two books, "Brain Gain or Brain Drain: The International Competition to Attract Talent" and "The Economics of Immigration and Social Diversity." He also has published articles in economics journals as well as important field journals, including Review of Economics and Statistics, Economic Journal, Journal of Economic Literature and Journal of Economic Growth.

About the Series

The theme for this year's Werner Sichel Lecture Series is "Immigration Policy Today." The series is organized by the WMU Department of Economics and named in honor of Werner Sichel, a longtime WMU economics professor and former department chair, who retired in 2004. The series is cosponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences and the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. The lectures are open to the public and formatted with the general public in mind.

This year's series is being organized by Dr. Susan Pozo, WMU professor of economics.

For more information, contact Pozo at (269) 387-5553 or susan.pozo@wmich.edu or visit wmich.edu/economics/events.

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