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Surviving Andersonville: The Benefits of Social Networks in POW Camps

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  • Dora L. Costa
  • Matthew E. Kahn

Abstract

Twenty-seven percent of the Union Army prisoners captured July 1863 or later died in captivity. At Andersonville, the death rate may have been as high as 40 percent. How did men survive such horrific conditions? Using two independent datasets, we find that friends had a statistically significant positive effect on survival probabilities and that the closer the ties between friends as measured by such identifiers as ethnicity, kinship, and the same hometown, the bigger was the impact of friends on survival probabilities. (JEL N41, Z13)

Suggested Citation

  • Dora L. Costa & Matthew E. Kahn, 2007. "Surviving Andersonville: The Benefits of Social Networks in POW Camps," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(4), pages 1467-1487, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:97:y:2007:i:4:p:1467-1487
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.97.4.1467
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Of Birds and Men
      by Matthew E. Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2011-11-20 21:38:00
    2. Social Capital's Role in Coping in Disaster Areas
      by Matthew Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2012-08-29 20:20:00
    3. Vote for Dora L. Costa for the AEA's Executive Committee!
      by Matthew Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2013-08-01 20:16:00
    4. Do Social Networks Increase or Decrease the COVID-19 Contagion Rate?
      by Matthew E. Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2020-04-02 14:57:00

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    3. Franklin G. Mixon & Rand W. Ressler & Richard J. Cebula, 2012. "Beyond the Friday night lights: Social networks, migration, and individual success in college football," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(1), pages 16-26.
    4. Steven N. Durlauf & Yannis M. Ioannides, 2010. "Social Interactions," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 2(1), pages 451-478, September.
    5. C. Kirabo Jackson & Elias Bruegmann, 2009. "Teaching Students and Teaching Each Other: The Importance of Peer Learning for Teachers," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(4), pages 85-108, October.
    6. Valencia Caicedo, Felipe, 2020. "Historical Econometrics: Instrumental Variables and Regression Discontinuity Designs," CEPR Discussion Papers 15208, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Dora Costa, 2021. "Health Shocks of the Father and Longevity of the Children's Children," NBER Working Papers 29553, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. OndÅ™ej KrÄ Ã¡l & Å tÄ›pán Mikula & Rostislav StanÄ›k, 2023. "Social capital and mobility: An experimental study," Rationality and Society, , vol. 35(1), pages 61-80, February.
    9. Costa, Dora L. & Kahn, Matthew E. & Roudiez, Christopher & Wilson, Sven, 2018. "Persistent social networks: Civil war veterans who fought together co-locate in later life," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 289-299.
    10. Dora Costa, 2012. "Scarring and Mortality Selection Among Civil War POWs: A Long-Term Mortality, Morbidity, and Socioeconomic Follow-Up," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(4), pages 1185-1206, November.
    11. Skarbek, David, 2012. "Prison gangs, norms, and organizations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 96-109.
    12. Dora L. Costa & Heather DeSomer & Eric Hanss & Christopher Roudiez & Sven E. Wilson & Noelle Yetter, 2017. "Union Army veterans, all grown up," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(2), pages 79-95, April.
    13. Braggion, F., 2008. "Managers, Firms and (Secret) Social Networks : The Economics of Freemasonry," Discussion Paper 2008-36, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    14. Bailey, Roy E. & Hatton, Timothy J. & Inwood, Kris, 2023. "Surviving the Deluge: British servicemen in World War I," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    15. Bělín, Matěj & Jelínek, Tomáš & Jurajda, Štepán, 2022. "Social Networks and Surviving the Holocaust," IZA Discussion Papers 15130, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Melissa Carlson & Barbara Koremenos, 2021. "Cooperation Failure or Secret Collusion? Absolute Monarchs and Informal Cooperation," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 95-135, January.
    17. Adelman, Sarah, 2013. "Keep your friends close: The effect of local social networks on child human capital outcomes," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 284-298.
    18. Voth, Hans-Joachim & Caprettini, Bruno, 2018. "From Welfare to Warfare: New Deal Spending and Patriotism During World War II," CEPR Discussion Papers 12807, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Dora Costa, 2022. "Overweight Grandsons and Grandfathers' Starvation Exposure," NBER Working Papers 30599, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Clifford G. Holderness & Jeffrey Pontiff, 2012. "Hierarchies and the Survival of Prisoners of War During World War II," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(10), pages 1873-1886, October.
    21. Shelley Liu, 2023. "Legacies of victimization: Evidence from forced resettlement in Zimbabwe," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2023-13, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    22. Costa, Dora L., 2023. "Overweight grandsons and grandfathers’ starvation exposure," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    23. Stepan Jurajda & Tomas Jelinek, 2019. "Surviving Auschwitz with Pre-Existing Social Ties," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp646, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    24. ASAI, Kentaro & KAMBAYASHI, Ryo, 2023. "The Consequences of Hometown Regiment : What Happened in Hometown When the Soldiers Never Returned?," Discussion Paper Series 743, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    25. Casey Ichniowski & Kathryn L. Shaw, 2009. "Connective Capital as Social Capital: The Value of Problem-Solving Networks for Team Players in Firms," NBER Working Papers 15619, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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    1. Surviving Andersonville: The Benefits of Social Networks in POW Camps (AER 2007) in ReplicationWiki

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