The long-term impact of military service on health: Evidence from world war II and Korean war veterans

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bedard, K; Deschênes, O
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Santa Barbara
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/000282806776157731
• 发表日期: 2006
• 页码: 176-194
• 关键词: FORMER AMERICAN PRISONERS; 50-YEAR FOLLOW-UP; instrumental variables; heart-disease; UNITED-STATES; mortality; CONFLICT; college; populations; regression

摘要

During the World War H and Korean War era, the U.S. military freely distributed cigarettes to overseas personnel and provided low-cost tobacco products on domestic military bases. In fact, even today the military continues to sell subsidized tobacco products on its bases. Using a variety of instrumental variables approaches to deal with nonrandom selection into the military and into smoking, we provide substantial evidence that cohorts with higher military participation rates subsequently suffered more premature mortality. More importantly, we show that a large fraction, 35 to 79 percent, of the excess veteran deaths due to heart disease and lung cancer are attributable to military-induced smoking.