Surviving Andersonville: The Benefits of Social Networks in POW Camps
American Economic Review
vol. 97,
no. 4, September 2007
(pp. 1467-1487)
Abstract
Twenty-seven percent of the Union Army prisoners captured July 1863 or later died in captivity. At Andersonville, the death rate may have been as high as 40 percent. How did men survive such horrific conditions? Using two independent datasets, we find that friends had a statistically significant positive effect on survival probabilities and that the closer the ties between friends as measured by such identifiers as ethnicity, kinship, and the same hometown, the bigger was the impact of friends on survival probabilities. (JEL N41, Z13)Citation
Costa, Dora, L., and Matthew E. Kahn. 2007. "Surviving Andersonville: The Benefits of Social Networks in POW Camps." American Economic Review, 97 (4): 1467-1487. DOI: 10.1257/aer.97.4.1467Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- N41 Economic History: Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation: U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
- Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Social and Economic Stratification