The Impact of World War II Army Service on Income and Mobility in the 1960s by Ethnoracial Group

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

No 33382, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We analyze the impact of World War II service on income and mobility among male Army and Army Airforce veterans from various racial and ethnic groups, using linked 1940 Census, WWII enlistment, and 1969 administrative tax return data. The dataset includes non-Hispanic White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American men, providing insight into underexplored groups. Ordinary Least Squares estimates indicate that, compared to non-Army men within their groups, Army veterans earned higher incomes and were less likely to migrate across counties between 1940 and 1969, particularly among non-Hispanic Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics. To address potential selection bias, we applied a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, comparing men just eligible for service to those slightly too young. These estimates revealed that, in 1969, Army veterans generally had lower adjusted gross incomes than non-Army counterparts among non-Hispanic Whites, Blacks, and Asians, while Hispanic and Native American veterans earned slightly more. Income effects varied by type of income. Veterans also showed lower rates of county migration, particularly among non-Hispanic Whites, Asians, and Native Americans. Migration differences were minor for Blacks and Hispanics. These findings highlight nuanced outcomes of WWII service across diverse racial and ethnic groups.

JEL-codes: J15 J7 N0 N42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-lab
Note: DAE
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w33382.pdf (application/pdf)
Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html. Free access is also available to older working papers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33382

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w33382
The price is Paper copy available by mail.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().