Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/51931 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5615
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
While descriptive evidence suggests that deployment in the Global War on Terrorism is associated with adverse mental health, the causal effect of combat is not well established. Using data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we exploit exogenous variation in deployment assignment and find that soldiers deployed to combat zones where they engage in frequent enemy firefight or witness allied or civilian deaths are at substantially increased risk for suicidal ideation, psychological counseling, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Our estimates imply lower-bound health care costs of $1.5 to $2.7 billion for combat-induced PTSD.
Subjects: 
military service
post-traumatic stress disorder
depression
JEL: 
H56
I1
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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