The Effects of World War II on Economic and Health Outcomes across Europe

Iris Kesternich; Bettina Siflinger; James P. Smith; Joachim Winter

doi:10.1162/rest_a_00353

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The Effects of World War II on Economic and Health Outcomes across Europe

Iris Kesternich¹; Bettina Siflinger¹; James P. Smith²; Joachim Winter¹

¹ University of Munich · ² RAND

The Review of Economics and Statistics 2014

We investigate long-run effects of World War II on socio-economic status and health of older individuals in Europe. We analyze data from SHARELIFE, a retrospective survey conducted as part of SHARE in Europe in 2009. SHARELIFE provides detailed data on events in childhood during and after the war for over 20,000 individuals in 13 European countries. We construct several measures of war exposure-experience of dispossession, persecution, combat in local areas, and hunger periods. Exposure to war and more importantly to individual-level shocks caused by the war significantly predicts economic and health outcomes at older ages.

DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00353
Volume: 96 (1)
Pages: 103-118
Language: en
Export: BibTeX
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