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Fatherless: The Long-Term Effects of Losing a Father in the U.S. Civil War

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  • Yannick Dupraz

    (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Andreas Ferrara

Abstract

We estimate the causal effect of losing a father in the U.S. Civil War on children's long-run socioeconomic outcomes. Linking military records from the 2.2 million Union Army soldiers with the 1860 U.S. population census, we track soldiers' sons into the 1880 and 1900 census. Sons of soldiers who died had lower occupational income scores and were less likely to work in a high-or semiskilled job as opposed to being low-skilled or farmers. These effects persisted at least until the 1900 census. Our results are robust to instrumenting paternal death with the mortality rate of the father's regiment, which we argue was driven by military strategy that did not take into account the social origins of soldiers. Prewar family wealth is a strong mitigating factor: there is no effect of losing a father in the top quartile of the wealth distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Yannick Dupraz & Andreas Ferrara, 2023. "Fatherless: The Long-Term Effects of Losing a Father in the U.S. Civil War," Post-Print hal-04127077, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04127077
    DOI: 10.3368/jhr.0122-12118R2
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://amu.hal.science/hal-04127077
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    2. Zachary Ward, 2023. "Intergenerational Mobility in American History: Accounting for Race and Measurement Error," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(12), pages 3213-3248, December.

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    Keywords

    U.S. civil war; Orphans; Intergenerational Mobility;
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