Lifetime Earnings and the Vietnam Era Draft Lottery: Evidence from Social Security Administrative Records

Authors
Joshua D. Angrist
Publisher
American Economic Association

The randomly assigned risk of induction generated by the draft lottery is used to construct estimates of the effect of veteran status on civilian earnings. These
estimates are not biased by the fact that certain types of men are more likely than others to service in the military. Social Security administrative records indicate
that in the early 1980s, long after their service in Vietnam was ended, the earnings of white veterans were approximately 15 percent less than the earnings of comparable nonveterans.

Publication date
Source / Citation
Angrist, Joshua D. "Lifetime Earnings and the Vietnam Era Draft Lottery: Evidence from Social Security Administrative Records," The American Economic Review, Vol. 80, No. 3 (Jun., 1990), pp. 313-336.
Location
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2006669