Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/236383 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 14352
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
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.
Subjects: 
career breaks
conscription
wages
employment
life satisfaction
natural experiment
JEL: 
J12
J24
J47
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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