The Long‐Run Educational Cost of World War II
Open accessAbstract
An important component of the long‐run cost of a war is the loss of human capital suffered by school‐age children who receive less education. Austrian and German individuals who were 10 years old during the conflict, or were more directly involved through their parents, received less education than comparable individuals from nonwar countries, such as Switzerland and Sweden. We also show that these individuals experienced a sizable earnings loss some 40 years after the war, which can be attributed to the educational loss caused by the conflict. The implied consequences in terms of gross domestic product loss are calculated.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Studies of school days lost due to other causes are mixed-some find durable effects and spillovers to adult earnings, while others report a fadeout of effects over time.
“Studies of school days lost due to other causes are mixed—some find durable effects and spillovers to adult earnings (59, 60), while others report a fadeout of effects over time (61, 62).”
From Learning loss due to school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic (2021) · cites this paper as [59]
Cites
Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments
Staiger, D., & Stock, J. H. (1997) · Econometrica · doi:10.2307/2171753 · Cited by 7,081 · see citing works
Journal of the American Statistical Association
Koehler, A. B. (1995) · International Journal of Forecasting · doi:10.1016/0169-2070(95)90067-5 · Cited by 5,359 · see citing works
Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments
Staiger, D., & Stock, J. (1994) · doi:10.3386/t0151 · Cited by 5,302 · see citing works
Tests for parameter instability and structural change with unknown change point.
Andrews, D. W. K. (1993) · Econometrica · doi:10.2307/2951764 · Cited by 4,334 · see citing works
Identification of Causal Effects Using Instrumental Variables
Angrist, J. D., Imbens, G. W., & Rubin, D. B. (1996) · Journal of the American Statistical Association · doi:10.1080/01621459.1996.10476902 · Cited by 4,230 · see citing works
Identification and estimation of local average treatment effects
Imbens, G. W., & Angrist, J. D. (1994) · Econometrica · doi:10.2307/2951620 · Cited by 4,101 · see citing works
Bound, J., Jaeger, D. A., & Baker, R. (1995) · Journal of the American Statistical Association · doi:10.1080/01621459.1995.10476536 · Cited by 3,845 · see citing works
The Causal Effect of Education on Earnings
Card, D. (1999) · Handbook of labour economics · doi:10.1016/s1573-4463(99)03011-4 · Cited by 3,617 · see citing works
Identification and Estimation of Local Average Treatment Effects
Angrist, J. D., & Imbens, G. W. (1995) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/t0118 · Cited by 2,898 · see citing works
Does Compulsory School Attendance Affect Schooling and Earnings?
Angrist, J. D., & Krueger, A. B. (1991) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.2307/2937954 · Cited by 2,565 · see citing works
Moretti, E. (2003) · Journal of Econometrics · doi:10.1016/j.jeconom.2003.10.015 · Cited by 1,291 · see citing works
Can Falling Supply Explain the Rising Return to College for Younger Men? A Cohort-Based Analysis
Card, D., & Lemieux, T. (2001) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1162/00335530151144140 · Cited by 1,140 · see citing works
Alternative methods for evaluating the impact of interventions
Heckman, J. J., & Robb, R. A. (1985) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/ccol0521304539.004 · Cited by 1,121 · see citing works
How Large Are Human-Capital Externalities? Evidence from Compulsory Schooling Laws
Acemoğlu, D., & Angrist, J. D. (2000) · NBER Macroeconomics Annual · doi:10.1086/654403 · Cited by 788 · see citing works
Effects of Cohort Size on Earnings: The Baby Boom Babies' Financial Bust
Welch, F. R. (1979) · Journal of Political Economy · doi:10.1086/260823 · Cited by 654 · see citing works
Earnings, Schooling, and Ability Revisited
Card, D. (1994) · Research in labor economics · doi:10.1108/s0147-9121(2012)0000035031 · Cited by 493 · see citing works
The Estimation of Wage Gains and Welfare Gains in Self-Selection Models
Björklund, A., & Moffitt, R. (1987) · The Review of Economics and Statistics · doi:10.2307/1937899 · Cited by 460 · see citing works
Goldin, C. D. (1998) · The Journal of Economic History · doi:10.1017/s0022050700020544 · Cited by 457 · see citing works
Why Do World War II Veterans Earn More than Nonveterans?
Angrist, J. D., & Krueger, A. B. (1994) · Journal of Labor Economics · doi:10.1086/298344 · Cited by 289 · see citing works
The Effect of Cohort Size on Earnings Growth: A Reexamination of the Evidence
Berger, M. C. (1985) · Journal of Political Economy · doi:10.1086/261315 · Cited by 201 · see citing works
Education, earnings, and the ‘Canadian G.I. Bill’
Lemieux, T., & Card, D. (2001) · Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d économique · doi:10.1111/0008-4085.00077 · Cited by 112 · see citing works
Ichino, A., & Winter‐Ebmer, R. (1999) · European Economic Review · doi:10.1016/s0014-2921(98)00102-0 · Cited by 109 · see citing works
Self-citationPolachek, S., & Tatsiramos, K. (2014) · Research in labor economics · doi:10.1108/rlec · Cited by 106 · see citing works
Bound, J., & Jaeger, D. A. (1996) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w5835 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
Bound, J., & Turner, S. (1999) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w7452 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
War and the intelligence of youth.
Degroot, A. D. (1951) · Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0057014 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Meng, X., & Gregory, R. (2007) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.958710 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Ichino, A., & Winter‐Ebmer, R. (1998) · Cadmus - EUI Research Repository (European University Institute) · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Self-citationLemieux, T. (2016) · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Maas, I., & Settersten, R. A. (1999) · European Sociological Review · doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.esr.a018261 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
The effects of war upon the intelligence of youth.
Groot, A. D. D. (1948) · Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0059609 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Learning loss due to school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic
Engzell, P., Frey, A., & Verhagen, M. D. (2021) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2022376118 · Cited by 1,848 · see citing works
“Studies of school days lost due to other causes are mixed—some find durable effects and spillovers to adult earnings (59, 60), while others report a fadeout of effects over time (61, 62).”
A systematic review and meta-analysis of the evidence on learning during the COVID-19 pandemic
Betthäuser, B. A., Bach-Mortensen, A. M., & Engzell, P. (2023) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-022-01506-4 · Cited by 568 · see citing works
Learning loss due to school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic
Engzell, P., Frey, A., & Verhagen, M. D. (2020) · doi:10.31235/osf.io/ve4z7 · Cited by 1,739 · see citing works
COVID-19 learning losses: Early grade reading in South Africa
Ardington, C., Wills, G., & Kotze, J. (2021) · International Journal of Educational Development · doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2021.102480 · Cited by 164 · see citing works
Violent conflict and gender inequality: an overview
Buvinic, M., Das Gupta, M., Casabonne, U., & Verwimp, P. (2013) · The World Bank Research Observer · doi:10.1093/wbro/lks011 · Cited by 140 · see citing works
The COVID-19 Cost of School Closures in Earnings and Income across the World
Psacharopoulos, G., Collis, V., Patrinos, H. A., & Vegas, E. (2021) · Comparative Education Review · doi:10.1086/713540 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
- Authors
- Ichino, A., & Winter‐Ebmer, R.
- Affiliations
- European University Institute (IT)
- Venue
- Journal of Labor Economics
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 2004-01
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 57-87
- ISSN
- 0734-306X (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5307
- OpenAlex
- W2022349621
- Cited by
- 307
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 30 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 21
- FWCI
- 13.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- papers.ssrn.com
- Locations
- Journal of Labor Economics (publishedVersion)
- SSRN Electronic Journal (submittedVersion)
- Cadmus - EUI Research Repository (European University Institute) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Economic Growth and Productivity
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Historical Economic and Social Studies
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact
- Keywords
- World War II, educational attainment, human capital loss, elementary school students, earnings losses, GDP loss
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
