Alfonso Flores-Lagunes (Syracuse University), "The Effects of Vietnam-Era Military Service on the Long-Term Health of Veterans: A Bounds Analysis”

"The Effects of Vietnam-Era Military Service on the Long-Term Health of Veterans: A Bounds Analysis”

Alfonso Flores-Lagunes (Syracuse University)
Host: Saraswata Chaudhuri

May 13, 2022
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM, Leacock 429

Abstract:
We analyze short- and long-term health effects of U.S. Vietnam-era military service on the population of veterans using a restricted version of the National Health Interview Survey and employing the draft lotteries as an instrumental variable. We start by assessing whether the instrument satisfies the exclusion restriction. Since we do not find evidence against its validity, we conduct inference on the health effects of military service for individuals who comply with the draft-lotteries assignment (the “compliers”). We do not find evidence of detrimental health effects on compliers, consistent with prior literature. For those who volunteer for enlistment (the “always takers”), estimated bounds based on a mild mean weak monotonicity assumption indicate statistically significant detrimental health effects that appear 20 years after the end of the conflict. As a group, veterans experience similar detrimental health effects from military service. Results have implications for compensation and health care policies of veterans.