Growing up in wartime: Evidence from th e era of two world wars
Abst ract:
We study the long-term cons equences of war on health and human capital of Europeans born during the fi rst half of the twentieth century, a period that has been termed the era of two world wars". This period includes not only WW1 and WW2, but also the S panish Flu and a long series of armed conflicts which foreshadowed or follo wed the two world wars. Using a variety of data, at both the macro- and the micro-level, we address the following questions: What are the patterns of mortality and survival among people born during this era? What are the cons equences of early-life shocks on the health and human capital of the surviv ors some 50 years later? Do these consequences differ by gender, socio-econ omic status in childhood, and age when the shocks occurred? We find that mo rtality is much higher in war- than in non-war countries during WW1 and WW2 , but not during the Spanish Flu. We also find important differences betwee n WW1 and WW2 in the mortality patterns by gender and age. As for the long- term consequences of mortality shocks on the survivors, we find little evid ence of increased adult mortality for people born during WW1 and WW2, but s ome evidence for people born during the Spanish Flu, especially, in England and Wales, France and Italy. On the other hand, war-related hardship episo des in childhood or adolescence (in particular exposure to war events and h unger) are strong predictors of physical and mental health, education, cogn itive ability and wellbeing past age 50. The magnitude of the estimated eff ects differs by socio-economic status in childhood and gender, with exposur e to war events having a larger impact on females and exposure to hunger ha ving a larger impact on males. We also find that exposure to hunger matters more in childhood, while exposure to war events matters more in adolescenc e. Finally, we find that hardship episodes have stronger consequences if th ey last longer.
DTSTAMP:20260404T122123Z DTSTART:20141211T173000Z DTEND:20141211T190000Z SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:OPAQUE END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR