Military conscription and university enrolment: Evidence from Italy

This paper analyses the effect of the abolition of compulsory military service (CMS) on university enrolment in Italy. A triple-difference model is used to account for various potentially confounding factors. The identification strategy exploits variation along three dimensions: (a) between gender,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of population economics 2013-04, Vol.26 (2), p.619-644
Main Author: Di Pietro, Giorgio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abolition
Age groups
Bildungsverhalten
Colleges & universities
Conscription
Constant coefficients
Demography
Earnings
Economic models
Economics
Economics and Finance
EDUCATION
Educational enrolment
Elementary schools
Graduation rate
High school graduates
Higher education
Italien
Italy
Labor Economics
Military service
Military studies
Multidimensional analysis
National service
Original Paper
Population Economics
Present value
Secondary schools
Social Policy
Soziale Schicht
Statistical models
Studies
Studium
Tax rates
Universities
Variance
Vocational high schools
Wage rates
Wehrdienst
Womens studies
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Summary:This paper analyses the effect of the abolition of compulsory military service (CMS) on university enrolment in Italy. A triple-difference model is used to account for various potentially confounding factors. The identification strategy exploits variation along three dimensions: (a) between gender, (b) between age-groups and (c) between time periods. The results show that there is no statistically significant evidence suggesting that the abolition of CMS has a causal effect on the decision to enrol in university studies. Estimates obtained employing a double-difference model exploiting variation along the dimensions (a) and (b) overestimate the effect. Finally, although there is no statistically significant overall effect, we find some evidence of heterogeneous effects between students from different social backgrounds.
ISSN:0176-1714
0933-1433
1432-1475
1432-1475
DOI:10.1007/s00148-012-0407-y