Did military service during World War I affect the economic status of American veterans?

摘要

I exploit discontinuous changes in the likelihood of military service induced by the transition between different registration regimes under the World War I draft to determine if wartime service affected economic outcomes. A new 1900-1930 linked sample is constructed to study the short-term effects, while the 1960 census is used for the long-term analysis. Implementing a fuzzy regression discontinuity design and a difference-in-discontinuities approach, I find little evidence of a causal relationship between wartime service and economic status. This may be due to America's relatively short involvement in the war, coupled with comparatively less-generous benefits thereafter.