%0 Report
        %A Puhani, Patrick A.
%A Sterrenberg, Margret K.
        %T Effects of Mandatory Military Service on Wages and Other Socioeconomic Outcomes
        %D 2021
        %8 2021 May
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 14352
        %U https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp14352
        %X 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.
        %K natural experiment
%K career breaks
%K life satisfaction
%K employment
%K wages
%K conscription