538/2021 Yannick Dupraz and Andreas Ferrara

To better understand how parental loss affects children's economic outcomes in the long run, and to better understand the human cost of the U.S. Civil War, we link Union Army records with U.S. Census data. This allows us to compare, when they are adults and participating in the labor market, the sons of soldiers who returned to the sons of those who died. We find that the sons who lost their father in childhood have a lower income and are less likely to have a skilled occupation, but this effect is absent for the sons of the wealthier soldiers, suggesting that family wealth offers some protection against the economic consequences of parental loss.

Economic History