Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/46071 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5172
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Draft lottery number assignment during the Vietnam era provides a natural experiment to examine the effects of military service on crime. Using exact dates of birth for inmates in state and federal prisons in 1979, 1986, and 1991, we find robust evidence of effects on violent crimes among whites. In particular, we find that draft eligibility increases incarceration rates for violent crimes by 14 to 19 percent. Based on Angrist and Chen's (2008) estimate of the effect of draft eligibility on veteran status, these estimates imply that military service increases the probability of incarceration for a violent crime by 0.27 percentage points. Results for nonwhites are not robust. We conduct two falsification tests, one that applies each of the three binding lotteries to unaffected cohorts and another that considers the effects of lotteries that were not used to draft servicemen.
Subjects: 
crime
violence
military
two-sample IV
Vietnam War
JEL: 
K42
H56
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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