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Fatherless: The Long-Term Effects of Losing a Father in the U.S. Civil War

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  • Yannick Dupraz
  • Andreas Ferrara

Abstract

We estimate the causal effect of losing a father in the U.S. Civil War on children’s long-run socioeconomic outcomes. Linking military records from the 2.2 million Union Army soldiers with the 1860 U.S. population census, we track soldiers’ sons into the 1880 and 1900 census. Sons of soldiers who died had lower occupational income scores and were less likely to work in a high-skilled or semi-skilled job as opposed to being in a low-skilled job or farmers. These effects persisted at least until the 1900 census. Our results are robust to instrumenting paternal death with the mortality rate of the father’s regiment, which we argue was driven by military strategy that did not take into account the social origins of soldiers. Pre-war family wealth is a strong mitigating factor—there is no effect of losing a father in the top quartile of the wealth distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Yannick Dupraz & Andreas Ferrara, 2025. "Fatherless: The Long-Term Effects of Losing a Father in the U.S. Civil War," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 60(4), pages 1126-1174.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:60:y:2025:i:4:p:1126-1174
    Note: DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.0122-12118R2
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N11 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

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