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Cowards and Heroes: Group Loyalty in the American Civil War

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Author Info
Dora L. Costa
Matthew E. Kahn

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Abstract

What motivated men to risk death in the most horrific war in U.S. history when pay was low and irregular and military punishment strategies were weak? In such a situation creating group loyalty by promoting social capital is of paramount importance and in the Civil War was the cement of both armies. We find that individual and company socio-economic and demographic characteristics, ideology, and morale were important predictors of group loyalty in the Union Army. Company characteristics were more important than ideology or morale. Soldiers in companies that were more homogeneous in ethnicity, occupation, and age were less likely to shirk.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 8627.

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Date of creation: Dec 2001
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Publication status: published as Costa, Dora L. and Matthew E. Kahn. "Cowards And Heroes: Group Loyalty In The American Civil War," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2003, v118(2,May), 519-548.
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:8627

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
L39 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Other
Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Social Norms and Social Capital; Social Networks Economic Anthropology

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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Franklin G. Mixon & Jared S. Loftus & Windy S. Keenel, 2004. "The decay of norms and the production of social order: conceptual and empirical models," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 11(12), pages 725-730, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Steven N. Durlauf & Marcel Fafchamps, 2004. "Social Capital," NBER Working Papers 10485, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Jeffrey Milyo & Jennifer M. Mellor, 2004. "State Social Capital and Individual Health Status," Working Papers 0419, Department of Economics, University of Missouri. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Chulhee Lee, 2005. "Health, Information, and Migration: Geographic Mobility of Union Army Veterans, 1860-1880," NBER Working Papers 11207, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Dora L. Costa & Matthew E. Kahn, 2004. "Shame and Ostracism: Union Army Deserters Leave Home," NBER Working Papers 10425, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Lex Borghans & Bas ter Weel & Bruce A. Weinberg, 2007. "Interpersonal Styles and Labor Market Outcomes," NBER Working Papers 12846, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Serguei Kaniovski & Dennis C. Mueller, . "Community Size, Heterogeneity and Voter Turnouts," WIFO Working Papers 248, WIFO. [Downloadable!]
  8. Aureo de Paula, 2004. "Social Interactions in a Synchronization Game," Econometric Society 2004 Latin American Meetings 277, Econometric Society. [Downloadable!]
  9. Daniel M. Hungerman, 2007. "Diversity and Crowd-out: A Theory of Cold-Glow Giving," NBER Working Papers 13348, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Franklin G. Mixon & Jared S. Loftus & Windy S. Keene, 2005. "The decay of norms and the production of social order: conceptual and empirical models," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 1-6, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Dora L. Costa & Matthew E. Kahn, 2004. "Forging a New Identity: The Costs and Benefits of Diversity in Civil War Combat Units for Black Slaves and Freemen," NBER Working Papers 11013, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Andrew Leigh, 2006. "Trust, Inequality, and Ethnic Heterogeneity," CEPR Discussion Papers 511, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University. [Downloadable!]
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  13. Edward Glaeser & Giacomo Ponzetto & Andrei Shleifer, 2006. "Why Does Democracy Need Education?," NBER Working Papers 12128, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  14. Jeffrey Milyo & Jennifer M. Mellor & Lisa Anderson, 2004. "Inequality, Group Cohesion, and Public Good Provision: An Experimental Analysis," Working Papers 0418, Department of Economics, University of Missouri, revised 27 Dec 2004. [Downloadable!]
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