Working Paper: NBER ID: w11207
Authors: Chulhee Lee
Abstract: This paper explores how injuries, sickness, and geographical mobility of Union Army veterans while in service affected their post-service migrations. Wartime wounds and illnesses significantly diminished the geographical mobility of veterans after the war. Geographic moves while carrying out military missions had strong positive effects on their post-service geographic mobility. Geographic moves while in service also influenced the choice of destination among the migrants. The farther into the South a veteran had traveled while in service, the higher the probability that he would migrate to the South. Furthermore, these migrants to the South were more likely to settle in a state they had entered while in service. Increased general knowledge about geographical transfer itself, greater information on distant lands and labor markets, and reduced psychological cost of moving were probably important mechanisms by which prior mobility affected subsequent migration. I discuss some implications of the results for the elements of self-selection in migration, the roles of different types of information in migration decisions, and the overall impact of the Civil War on geographic mobility.
Keywords: migration; health; Union Army veterans; geographic mobility
JEL Codes: J1; N3; I1
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| wartime wounds (H56) | decreased probability of migration to a different county (R23) |
| wartime illnesses (I12) | decreased probability of migration to a different county (R23) |
| wartime illnesses (I12) | diminished distance of migration (F22) |
| prior geographic mobility (J62) | increased probability of post-service migration (J68) |
| prior geographic mobility (J62) | increased distance of post-service migration (J68) |
| southbound move by one degree of latitude (J62) | increased probability of migrating to the south (R23) |