Arbeitspapier
Effects of Mandatory Military Service on Wages and Other Socioeconomic Outcomes
In this paper, we estimate the effects of mandatory military service by exploiting the post-cold war decrease in the need for soldiers causing a substantial number of potential conscripts not to be drafted into the German military. Specifically, using previously unavailable information on degree of fitness in the military's medical exam as a control variable, we test for the effects of mandatory military service on wages; employment; marriage/partnership status; and satisfaction with work, financial situation, health, family life, friends, and life in general. We find almost no statistically significant effects of this 6 to 9 month career interruption for young German men, with the exception of hourly wage, which shows a negative point estimate of -15 percent with a large confidence interval of between -30 and -0.2 percent. This interval estimate is consistent with previous findings for the United States, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
- Sprache
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Englisch
- Erschienen in
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Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 14352
- Klassifikation
-
Wirtschaft
Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse
Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
Coercive Labor Markets
- Thema
-
career breaks
conscription
wages
employment
life satisfaction
natural experiment
- Ereignis
-
Geistige Schöpfung
- (wer)
-
Puhani, Patrick A.
Sterrenberg, Margret K.
- Ereignis
-
Veröffentlichung
- (wer)
-
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
- (wo)
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Bonn
- (wann)
-
2021
- Handle
- Letzte Aktualisierung
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10.03.2025, 11:45 MEZ
Datenpartner
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Objekttyp
- Arbeitspapier
Beteiligte
- Puhani, Patrick A.
- Sterrenberg, Margret K.
- Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
Entstanden
- 2021