Boaz Abramson
Gone but not Forgotten: The Effects of Death During War on Families Back Home
Conflict and Polarization Initiative Fellow | 2018 - 2019 Academic Year
We estimate the causal effects military service during war might have on family members back home. Our focus in on the effect of death due to war participation on the brothers, children and parents of the deceased. Exploiting random variation in unit assignment and fatal injuries, we are able to identify the effects of interest by comparing family members of soldiers who died in war to those who survived. We also consider how different war experiences shape the life trajectories of surviving veterans. Our historical setting is World War 1. We combine archival military records with Census data to study economic and social outcomes: labor market indicators, assimilation processes for immigrants, discrimination against African-Americans and political outcomes.
Boaz Abramson, Department of Economics
Boaz Abramson is a PhD candidate in economics. He holds a BA in statistics and an MA in economics, both from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Prior to Stanford, he worked as an economist for the Macroeconomic Activity Unit at the Bank of Israel. Abramson’s research focuses on the long-term effects war participation has on family members back home, and on the interplay between social identity and international integration. In other work he studies how government policies in the United States may help reduce the phenomenal rate at which families are being evicted from their homes.