Joshua D. Angrist, Stacey H. Chen and Brigham R. Frandsen (2008) Did Vietnam Veterans Get Sicker in the 1990s? The Complicated Effects of Military Service on Self-reported Health..
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The veterans disability compensation (VDC) program, which provides a monthly stipend to disabled veterans, is the third largest American disability insurance program. Since the late 1990s, VDC growth has been driven primarily by an increase in claims from Vietnam veterans, raising concerns about costs as well as health. We use the draft lottery to study the long-term effects of Vietnam-era military service on health and work in the 2000 Census. These estimates show no significant overall effects on employment or work-related disability status, with a small effect on non-work-related disability for whites. On the other hand, estimates for white men with low earnings potential show a large negative impact on employment and a marked increase in non-work-related disability rates. The differential impact of Vietnam-era service on low-skill men cannot be explained by more combat or war-theatre exposure for the least educated, leaving the relative attractiveness of VDC for less skilled men and the work disincentives embedded in the VDC system as a likely explanation.
This is a Accepted version This version's date is: 2008 This item is not peer reviewed
https://repository.royalholloway.ac.uk/items/bc4690bd-f04f-4816-67d8-ead9af3eee39/1/
Deposited by Leanne Workman (UXYL007) on 09-Oct-2012 in Royal Holloway Research Online.Last modified on 09-Oct-2012
© 2009 by Joshua D. Angrist, Stacey H. Chen, and Brigham R. Frandsen. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source.