Reducing Risks in Wartime Through Capital-Labor Substitution: Evidence from World War II

Chris Rohlfs (), Ryan Sullivan and Thomas Kniesner
Additional contact information
Chris Rohlfs: Morgan Stanley

No 9260, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Our research uses data from multiple archival sources to examine substitution among armored (tank-intensive), infantry (troop-intensive), and airborne (also troop-intensive) military units, as well as mid-war reorganizations of each type, to estimate the marginal cost of reducing U.S. fatalities in World War II, holding constant mission effectiveness, usage intensity, and task difficulty. If the government acted as though it equated marginal benefits and costs, the marginal cost figure measures the implicit value placed on soldiers' lives. Our preferred estimates indicate that infantrymen's lives were valued in 2009 dollars between $0 and $0.5 million and armored troops' lives were valued between $2 million and $6 million, relative to the efficient $1 million to $2 million 1940s-era private value of life. We find that the reorganizations of the armored and airborne divisions both increased efficiency, one by reducing costs with little increase in fatalities and the other by reducing fatalities with little increase in costs.

Keywords: military capital-labor substitution; military cost functions; World War II; cost of saving lives; European theater of operation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D24 H56 J17 J24 L11 N42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 84 pages
Date: 2015-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-lma
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published - published in: Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 2016, 52 (2), 163-190.

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Journal Article: Reducing risks in wartime through capital-labor substitution: Evidence from World War II (2016)
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