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Un-Fortunate Sons: Effects of the Vietnam Draft Lottery on the Next Generation's Labor Market

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Abstract

Can shocks to one generation propagate to the next? To answer this question, we study how the Vietnam draft lottery affected the next generation's labor market. Using the universe of federal tax returns, we link fathers from draft cohorts to their sons' outcomes and find that sons of fathers randomly called by the draft 1) have lower earnings and labor force participation than their peers, and 2) are more likely to volunteer for military service. These findings highlight the strong role family plays in human capital development and occupational choice. More generally, our results provide sound evidence that malleable aspects of a parent's life course can influence children's labor market outcomes and that policies that only directly alter the circumstances of one generation can have important long-run effects on the next.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarena Goodman & Adam Isen, 2015. "Un-Fortunate Sons: Effects of the Vietnam Draft Lottery on the Next Generation's Labor Market," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2015-119, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2015-119
    DOI: 10.17016/FEDS.2015.119r1
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    Cited by:

    1. Aaronson, Daniel & Faber, Jacob & Hartley, Daniel & Mazumder, Bhashkar & Sharkey, Patrick, 2021. "The long-run effects of the 1930s HOLC “redlining” maps on place-based measures of economic opportunity and socioeconomic success," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Vietnam War draft lottery; Household environment; Intergenerational mobility; Labor supply; Military service; Occupational transmission; Parental inputs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H56 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - National Security and War
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

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