The impact of World War II Army service on income and mobility in the 1960s by ethnoracial group

Sergio E. Barrera, Andreas Ferrara, Price V. Fishback and Misty L. Heggeness

Explorations in Economic History, 2025, vol. 97, issue C

Abstract: We link the 1940 full-count Census to World War II enlistment records and 1969 administrative tax returns to study how WWII service in the Army and Army Airforce impacted the income and mobility of non-Hispanic White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American male Army veterans relative to their non-Army counterparts in 1969. The size of our data set provides enough power to shed new light on previously understudied groups, such as Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans. In comparisons of Army veterans with non-Army men, Ordinary Least Squares estimates suggest that WWII Army veterans had higher incomes than non-Army men within the same group, and Army veterans were less likely to change counties between 1940 and 1969 than non-Army men within the non-Hispanic White, Black, and Hispanic groups. Worries about selection bias led us to estimate the effects with a fuzzy regression discontinuity design that compares men who were just too young to serve during World War II to men who were just old enough to serve. Those results showed that Army veterans had lower adjusted gross incomes than non-Army men within the non-Hispanic White, Black, and Asian groups, and slightly higher incomes within the Hispanic and Native American groups. The differences varied by type of income. Migration across county boundaries was lower for Army veterans than non-Army men among non-Hispanic Whites, Asians, and Native Americans, and there were only small differences among Blacks and Hispanics.

Keywords: Minority inequities; World War II; Veterans; Administrative records (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 J71 N12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Working Paper: The Impact of World War II Army Service on Income and Mobility in the 1960s by Ethnoracial Group (2025)
Working Paper: The Impact of World War II Army Service on Income and Mobility in the 1960s by Ethnoracial Group (2025)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:exehis:v:97:y:2025:i:c:s0014498325000348

DOI: 10.1016/j.eeh.2025.101687

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