Working Paper: NBER ID: w19605
Authors: Hoyt Bleakley; Louis Cain; Joseph Ferrie
Abstract: This study examines a wide range of health and economic outcomes in a sample of Irish- and African-American Civil War veterans during the postbellum period. The information in our data is from a variety of circumstances across an individual's life span, and we use that to attempt to explain whether the disparities in mortality are related to disparities in life experiences. We find evidence of disparities between Irish and blacks and others in such variables as occupation and wealth, morbidity, and mortality. The data do not reveal disparate outcomes for all blacks and Irish; they only reveal inferior outcomes for slave-born blacks and foreign-born Irish. For the freeborn blacks and native-born Irish, for whom the historical tradition suggests discrimination and prejudice, the data only hint at such problems.
Keywords: Civil War; Irish; African American; mortality; health outcomes
JEL Codes: N11
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| disparities in mortality among Irish and African American Civil War veterans (I14) | health outcomes (I14) |
| disparities in mortality among Irish and African American Civil War veterans (I14) | life experiences (I24) |
| life experiences (I24) | health outcomes (I14) |
| occupation differences (J69) | disparities in mortality among Irish and African American Civil War veterans (I14) |
| wealth differences (D31) | disparities in mortality among Irish and African American Civil War veterans (I14) |
| morbidity differences (I12) | disparities in mortality among Irish and African American Civil War veterans (I14) |
| slave-born blacks (J47) | higher hazard ratio of mortality (I12) |
| free-born blacks (J15) | hazard ratio of mortality (C41) |
| foreign-born Irish (F22) | poorer health outcomes (I14) |
| native-born Irish (J69) | better health outcomes (I14) |