This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Review
  4. May 2011
  5. Long-Term Consequences of Vietnam-Era Conscription: New Estimates Using Social Security Data

Long-Term Consequences of Vietnam-Era Conscription: New Estimates Using Social Security Data

  • Joshua D. Angrist
  • Stacey H. Chen
  • Jae Song
American Economic Review
vol. 101, no. 3, May 2011
(pp. 334-38)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

We use the draft lottery to construct instrumental variables (IV) estimates of the impact of Vietnam-era military service on veterans' Social Security (SSA) earnings through 2007. We also use SSA data to construct IV estimates for employment (as measured by an indicator for positive earnings) and disability status (as measured by an indicator for social security disability program application). New findings for recent years show surprisingly rapid convergence in veteran and nonveteran earnings: by the early 1990s, there was no longer a substantial Vietnam-era conscription penalty. The IV estimates also show no effect on employment or disability rates.

Citation

Angrist, Joshua D., Stacey H. Chen, and Jae Song. 2011. "Long-Term Consequences of Vietnam-Era Conscription: New Estimates Using Social Security Data." American Economic Review, 101 (3): 334-38. DOI: 10.1257/aer.101.3.334

JEL Classification

  • H55 Social Security and Public Pensions
  • J14 Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-labor Market Discrimination
  • J31 Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
  • J45 Public Sector Labor Markets