TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Luca, Giacomo De
AU  - Montalbano, Andrea
AU  - Stillman, Steven
        TI  - Serving Countries, Shaping Views: Military Conscription and Attitude Towards Immigrants
        PY  - 2025/Jul/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18003
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18003
        AB  - We study the long-term impact of compulsory military service, a powerful nation building tool, on attitudes toward immigrants. Using a regression discontinuity design, we compare cohorts of men required to serve with those exempted due to suspension of compulsory service in 21 European countries. We find that conscripts exhibit more negative attitudes towards immigrants, whereas this is not true for women in the same birth cohorts. The impact is more pronounced in countries with high levels of immigration, and when the military service was done during a left-wing government, and hence provided a stronger change in narrative during a crucial formative period.
        KW  - identity
KW  - conscription
KW  - nation building
KW  - immigration
KW  - discrimination
        ER  -