Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/51732 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5744
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Compulsory military service typically drafts young men when they are at the height of their learning ability. Thus, it can be expected to depress the demand for higher education since skill atrophy and the delayed entry into the civilian labor market reduce the returns to human-capital investments. Attending university, however, might open the possibility to avoid the draft, leading to an increase in the demand for tertiary education. To estimate the causal effect of conscription on the probability to obtain a university degree, we use a regression-discontinuity design that employs special regulations associated with the introduction of conscription in Germany in 1956. We estimate conscription to increase the probability of having a university degree.
Subjects: 
regression discontinuity
conscription
career interruption
skill atrophy
TS2SLS
JEL: 
I28
J24
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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