Early-Life Income Shocks and Old-Age Mortality : Evidence from World War I Veterans’ Bonus

In 1936, the US government enacted the later-known Bonus Act, which triggered cash transfers to about 3 million veterans who had served in World War I. This paper studies the long-run benefits of veterans’ bonus receipt on their children’s old-age longevity. We employ data from Social Security Administration death records over the years 1975-2005 linked to the full-count 1940 census and implement regressions that compare the longevity of children of veterans versus non-veterans across various ages of exposure to the bonus receipt. We find that those exposed during in-utero and early-life reveal significant improvements in longevity of about 6.4 months