The effect of military deployment on mental health

In this paper we estimate the causal effect of military deployment on soldiers’ mental health. To handle the selection bias problem, we use longitudinal data for deployed and non-deployed eligible men in a difference-in-differences setting. Using pair-wise matching, we impute deployment dates for the non-deployed eligible men, and our results hold to various robustness checks. Our administrative records provide objective measures of mental health service use in the form of psychiatric diagnoses and purchase of mental health-related medication. The very rich data makes it possible to control for important variables like intelligence tests and family background. We find significant adverse effects of military deployment on soldiers’ mental health service use.
Highlights:
- Causal effect of military deployment on soldiers’ use of mental health service
- Using a difference-in-differences approach
- First evidence relying on administrative records of measures of mental health service use
- Significant adverse effects of military deployment on soldiers’ mental health service use.