Wages and the Great War: Evidence from the largest draft lottery in history

Arbeitspapier

Do veterans earn less? During WW I, the US organized "the greatest human lottery in history": a random draft of 24 million men. Ultimately, 2.8 million Americans were selected to join the armed forces. We sample 10% of registrants of the 1917 lottery and match these men with the 1930 and 1940 US Federal Censuses. Low lottery numbers significantly increased the likelihood of serving in World War I. Importantly, military service also had a positive causal effect on earnings and occupational outcomes. Veterans joined professions with higher cognitive skill requirements, including higher intelligence, language, reasoning, and math requirements. Randomly-assigned military service had fundamentally different effects during World War I than in Vietnam. We rationalize this finding by analyzing complier characteristics.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: Working Paper ; No. 441

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Economic History: Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation: U.S.; Canada: 1913- ; Public Sector Labor Markets ; Higher Education; Research Institutions ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: U.S.; Canada: 1913-
• Thema: Veterans' income ; lottery ; effect of war participation

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Caprettini, Bruno ; Voth, Hans-Joachim
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): University of Zurich, Department of Economics
• (wo): Zurich
• (wann): 2023

Weitere Informationen

• DOI: doi:10.5167/uzh-239553
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/280777
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:44 MEZ