Working Paper: NBER ID: w16927
Authors: Resul Cesur; Joseph J. Sabia; Erdal Tekin
Abstract: While descriptive evidence suggests that deployment in the Global War on Terrorism is associated with adverse mental health, the causal effect of combat is not well established. Using data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we exploit exogenous variation in deployment assignment and find that soldiers deployed to combat zones where they engage in frequent enemy firefight or witness allied or civilian deaths are at substantially increased risk for suicidal ideation, psychological counseling, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Our estimates imply lower-bound health care costs of $1.5 to $2.7 billion for combat-induced PTSD.
Keywords: mental health; combat exposure; PTSD; suicidal ideation
JEL Codes: H56; I1
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| prior mental health conditions (I12) | causal interpretation (C32) |
| combat exposure (Y60) | PTSD (H56) |
| combat exposure (Y60) | psychological counseling (D91) |
| combat exposure (Y60) | suicidal ideation (I12) |
| frequent enemy firefights (H56) | PTSD (H56) |
| frequent enemy firefights (H56) | psychological counseling (D91) |
| frequent enemy firefights (H56) | suicidal ideation (I12) |
| witnessing death (I12) | PTSD (H56) |
| witnessing death (I12) | psychological counseling (D91) |
| witnessing death (I12) | suicidal ideation (I12) |