Full Citation

Title: Wartime health shocks and the postwar socioeconomic status and mortality of union army veterans and their children

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2020

ISBN:

ISSN: 01676296

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2019.102281

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: We investigate when and how health shocks reverberate across the life cycle and down to descendants in a manual labor economy by examining the association of war wounds with the socioeconomic status and older age mortality of US Civil War (1861–5) veterans and of their adult children. Younger veterans who had been severely wounded in the war left the farm sector, becoming laborers. Consistent with human capital and job matching models, older severely wounded men were unlikely to switch sectors and their wealth declined by 37–46%. War wounds were correlated with children's socioeconomic and mortality outcomes in ways dependent on sex and paternal age group.

Url: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167629619300463

Url: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0167629619300463

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Costa, Dora L.; Yetter, Noelle; DeSomer, Heather

Periodical (Full): Journal of Health Economics

Issue:

Volume: 70

Pages:

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Family and Marriage, Health, Other, Work, Family, and Time

Countries: United States