{"title":"Draft deferments and higher education: New evidence from a totalitarian state","authors":"Vahe Lskavyan","doi":"10.1111/ecpo.12310","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Previous studies report mixed results regarding the relationship between military conscription and educational incentives. We provide new evidence from a distinct institutional environment—the Soviet Union, a totalitarian and centrally planned superpower. We examine the impact of abolishing student deferments on higher education (HE) enrollments. Competing hypotheses about the value of Soviet HE imply an uncertain relationship. For a sample of individuals from Latvia, then part of the Soviet Union, we find that this change significantly reduced the odds of male but not female enrollments. There is no evidence that this relationship varied by nationality. Additionally, we find that males who enrolled in HE just before the deferments were abolished were less likely to complete their education. Our results confirm that Soviet HE was used, in part, to avoid military service.</p>","PeriodicalId":47220,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Politics","volume":"37 1","pages":"87-114"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ecpo.12310","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Economics & Politics","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecpo.12310","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Previous studies report mixed results regarding the relationship between military conscription and educational incentives. We provide new evidence from a distinct institutional environment—the Soviet Union, a totalitarian and centrally planned superpower. We examine the impact of abolishing student deferments on higher education (HE) enrollments. Competing hypotheses about the value of Soviet HE imply an uncertain relationship. For a sample of individuals from Latvia, then part of the Soviet Union, we find that this change significantly reduced the odds of male but not female enrollments. There is no evidence that this relationship varied by nationality. Additionally, we find that males who enrolled in HE just before the deferments were abolished were less likely to complete their education. Our results confirm that Soviet HE was used, in part, to avoid military service.
期刊介绍：
Economics & Politics focuses on analytical political economy, broadly defined as the study of economic and political phenomena and policy in models that include political processes, institutions and markets. The journal is the source for innovative theoretical and empirical work on the intersection of politics and economics, at both domestic and international levels, and aims to promote new approaches on how these forces interact to affect political outcomes and policy choices, economic performance and societal welfare. Economics & Politics is a vital source of information for economists, academics and students, providing: - Analytical political economics - International scholarship - Accessible & thought-provoking articles - Creative inter-disciplinary analysis
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