Long-Term Health Effects of Vietnam-Era Military Service: A Quasi-Experiment Using Australian Conscription Lotteries

David Johnston, Michael Shields and Peter Siminski

No 8852, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper estimates the long-term health effects of Vietnam-Era military service using Australia's National conscription lotteries for identification. Our primary contribution is the quality and breadth of our health outcomes. We use several administrative sources, containing a near-universe of records on mortality (1994-2011), cancer diagnoses (1982-2008), and emergency hospital presentations (2005-2010). We also analyse a range of self-reported morbidity indicators (2006-2009). We find no significant long-term effects on mortality, cancer or emergency hospital visits. In contrast, we find significant detrimental effects on a number of morbidity measures. Hearing and mental health appear to be particularly affected.

Keywords: military service; health; conscription; Australia; Vietnam War (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H56 I10 I13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2015-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-sea
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Published - published in: Journal of Health Economics, 2016, 45, 12-26.

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Journal Article: Long-term health effects of Vietnam-era military service: A quasi-experiment using Australian conscription lotteries (2016)
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