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Health and Wealth Accumulation: Evidence from Nineteenth-Century America

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Chulhee Lee

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Abstract

This study explores how the health of Union Army recruits while in the service affected their wealth accumulation through 1870. Wartime wounds and exposure to combat, measured by the company mortality from wounds, had strong negative effects on subsequent savings. Variables on illnesses while in service, if corrected for the potential bias arising from omitted variables by using instrumental variables, also greatly diminished wealth accumulations. The economic impact of poor health was particularly strong for unskilled workers. These results suggest that health was a powerful determinant of economic mobility in the nineteenth century. The strong influences on wealth accumulations of various infectious diseases, such as malaria, typhoid, and diarrhea, found in this study point out that the economic gains from the improvement of the disease environment should be enormous. This study also suggests that the direct economic costs of the Civil War were probably much greater than previously thought, if the persistent adverse effects of wartime experiences on veterans' health are considered.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 10035.

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Date of creation: Oct 2003
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10035

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N3 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Income, and Wealth
I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health

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References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Robert William Fogel, 1993. "New Sources and New Techniques for the Study of Secular Trends in Nutritional Status, Health, Mortality, and the Process of Aging," NBER Historical Working Papers 0026, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. O. Attanasio & H. W. Hoynes, . "Differential mortality and wealth accumulation," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1079-96, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty. [Downloadable!]
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  3. John Strauss & Duncan Thomas, 1998. "Health, Nutrition, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(2), pages 766-817, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. David W. Galenson & Clayne L. Pope, 1989. "Economic and Geographic Mobility on the Farming Frontier: Evidence from Appanoose County, Iowa 1850-1870," NBER Historical Working Papers 0004, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Angrist, Joshua D, 1990. "Lifetime Earnings and the Vietnam Era Draft Lottery: Evidence from Social Security Administrative Records," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(3), pages 313-36, June.
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  6. James P. Smith, 1999. "Healthy Bodies and Thick Wallets: The Dual Relation between Health and Economic Status," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 145-166, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Jonathan Meer & Douglas L. Miller & Harvey S. Rosen, 2003. "Exploring the Health-Wealth Nexus," NBER Working Papers 9554, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Claudia Goldin & Robert A. Margo, 1989. "Wages, Prices, and Labor Markets Before the Civil War," NBER Working Papers 3198, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Herscovici Steven, 1993. "The Distribution of Wealth in Nineteenth Century Boston: Inequality among Natives and Immigrants, 1860," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 321-335, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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