The Effects of World War II onEconomic and Health Outcomes across Europe

In this paper, we investigate the long-run effects of World War II on socio-economic status(SES) and health of older individuals in Europe. Physical and psychological childhood eventsare important predictors for labor market and health outcomes in adult life, but studies thatquantify these effects in large samples that cover entire diverse populations are still rare. Wewill analyze data from SHARELIFE, a retrospective survey conducted as part of the Surveyon Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) in 2009. This survey provides detaileddata on events in childhood including those during the war as well as several measures ofexposure to war shocks such as experience of dispossession, persecution, combat in localareas, and hunger periods for over 20,000 individuals in 13 European countries. We find thatexposure to the war itself, and even more importantly to individual-level shocks caused bythe war such as hunger periods, significantly predict old-age outcomes at older ages...