The Effects of Combat Deployments on Veterans' Outcomes

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bruhn, Jesse; Greenberg, Kyle; Gudgeon, Matthew; Rose, Evan K.; Shem-Tov, Yotam
• 署名单位: Brown University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Tufts University; IZA Institute Labor Economics; University of Chicago; University of California System; University of California Los Angeles
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/729450
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 2830-2879
• 关键词: MENTAL-HEALTH PROBLEMS; military service; disability insurance; WAR; VIOLENCE; Vietnam; IMPACT; exposure; IRAQ; COMPENSATION

摘要

As millions of soldiers deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021, Veteran Affairs Disability Compensation payments quadrupled and the veteran suicide rate rose rapidly. We estimate the causal contribution of combat deployments to declining veteran well-being. Deployments increase injuries, combat deaths, and disability compensation, but we find limited effects on suicide, deaths of despair, financial health, incarceration, or education. Our estimates suggest that deployment cannot explain either the recent rise in disability payments, which is more likely driven by policy changes, or the surge in noncombat deaths, which is better explained by shifts in observable characteristics of soldiers.