The Effects of World War II on Economic and Health Outcomes across Europe

Iris Kesternich, Bettina M. Siflinger (), James Smith and Joachim Winter ()
Additional contact information
Bettina M. Siflinger: Tilburg University

No 6296, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the long-run effects of World War II on socio-economic status (SES) and health of older individuals in Europe. Physical and psychological childhood events are important predictors for labor market and health outcomes in adult life, but studies that quantify these effects in large samples that cover entire diverse populations are still rare. We will analyze data from SHARELIFE, a retrospective survey conducted as part of the Survey on Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) in 2009. This survey provides detailed data on events in childhood including those during the war as well as several measures of exposure to war shocks such as experience of dispossession, persecution, combat in local areas, and hunger periods for over 20,000 individuals in 13 European countries. We find that exposure to the war itself, and even more importantly to individual-level shocks caused by the war such as hunger periods, significantly predict old-age outcomes at older ages.

Keywords: health; war; SES (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H0 I0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2012-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

Published - published in: Review of Economics and Statistics, 2014, 96 (1), 103–118

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Effects of World War II on Economic and Health Outcomes across Europe (2014)
Working Paper: The Effects of World War II on Economic and Health Outcomes across Europe (2012)
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