@TechReport{dp-684,
   author        = {Puhani, Patrick A. and Sterrenberg, Margret K.},
   astring       = {Patrick A. Puhani and Margret K. Sterrenberg},
   title            = {Effects of Mandatory Military Service on Wages and Other Socioeconomic Outcomes},
   month         = {May},
   year           = {2021},
   pages         = {28},
   size             = {613},
   number        = {684},
   language      = {en},
   keywords      = {career breaks; conscription; wages; employment; life satisfaction; natural experiment},
   jelclass      = {J12; J24; J47},
   abstract      = {In this paper, we estimate the effects of mandatory military service by exploiting the post-cold war decrease in the need for soldiers causing a substantial number of potential conscripts not to be drafted into the German military. Specifically, using previously unavailable information on degree of fitness in the military’s medical exam as a control variable, we test for the effects of mandatory military service on wages; employment; marriage/partnership status; and satisfaction with work, financial situation, health, family life, friends, and life in general. We find almost no statistically significant effects of this 6 to 9 month career interruption for young German men, with the exception of hourly wage, which shows a negative point estimate of -15 percent with a large confidence interval of between -30 and -0.2 percent. This interval estimate is consistent with previous findings for the United States, Denmark, and the Netherlands.}
}