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Title: State Capacity and Discrimination: WWII U.S. Army Enlistment

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2021

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Abstract: This paper investigates the effect of discrimination on volunteer military enlistment rates, which we interpret as a component of state capacity. We use weekly enlistment data to document that WWII African American enlistment rates immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack were negatively associated with the intensity of racial discrimination across U.S. counties. White enlistment rates were unassociated with discrimination. These patterns are robust to controlling for a large number of fixed effects and race-county-time-specific controls. The data show similar negative relationships between the degree of discrimination and enlistment rates for Japanese Americans. The empirical findings are evidence that discrimination reduced state capacity.

Url: https://econ.vt.edu/content/dam/econ_vt_edu/seminars/spring-2021/3-15-21 Qian.pdf

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Authors: Tabellini, Marco; Qian, Nancy

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Race and Ethnicity

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