Andrew C. Trapp (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)

Abstract: Tens of thousands of refugees are resettled yearly from refugee camps to host countries. Local areas that host refugees are reluctant to open capacity, and most impose tight restrictions on the refugee family types they accept. We model this matching challenge as a 0-1 knapsack variant and explore outcomes-related objectives in the search toward an optimal allocation. Our employment optimization matching problem is embedded within a dynamic software tool that facilitates interactive use to fine-tune the recommended match results. We estimate counterfactual employment outcome improvement to be 22%-37%.

(Room MC102)