Conscription and Educational Outcomes: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from the Republic of Cyprus

Ružica Savčić, Nikolaos Theodoropoulos and Dimitrios Xefteris

No 628, GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Abstract: Peacetime military service has both positive and negative effects on human capital. While it depreciates academic abilities it also enhances non-cognitive skills. The net effect of conscription is hard to identify due to issues of self-selection, endogenous timing and omitted variables bias. We exploit the compulsory service of men in the Republic of Cyprus prior to university enrolment, to deal with the first two problems. After controlling for prior academic performance, admission age, and other relevant controls, we find that the duration of service has a positive effect on university test scores. Two exogenous reforms on the duration of the service allow us to deal with omitted variables bias. We estimate difference-in-difference models, where female students act as a control group, and show that a reduction (increase) in the length of the army service has a negative (positive) effect on male academic performance.

Keywords: Compulsory military service; human capital; education; non-cognitive skills; academic outcomes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 H56 I21 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:glodps:628

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