ABSTRACT

Veterans exit military service with varying degrees of service-connected disabilities (SCD). The GI Bill provides educational benefits, which increased substantially in 2009 (‘Post-9/11 GI Bill’). Exploiting the exogeneity of SCD and using a difference-in-difference approach, we find that SCD veterans are 16.2 percent more likely to attend college than non-SCD veterans due to the Post-9/11 GI Bill, an effect driven by lower-level SCD veterans attending public colleges. After the benefit increase many lower-level SCD veterans switch from being employed to attending college. We provide insights into the disabled veterans’ college-employment tradeoffs and find that the benefit likely helps disabled veterans improve their labor market outcomes. Future changes in the distribution of SCD levels among veterans will translate into changes in the demand for higher education. Also, the high responsiveness to a more generous financial aid for higher education among disabled veterans may provide useful insights into the effective design of similar subsidies for civilian disabled populations.

摘要

退伍军人因不同程度的服役相关残疾 (SCD) 退出兵役。GI 法案提供教育福利，该福利在 2009 年大幅增加（“9/11 后 GI 法案”）。利用 SCD 的外生性并使用差分法，我们发现由于 9/11 后的 GI 法案，SCD 退伍军人上大学的可能性比非 SCD 退伍军人高 16.2%，这是由较低的 -就读公立大学的 SCD 级退伍军人。福利增加后，许多较低级别的 SCD 退伍军人从就业转向上大学。我们提供了对残疾退伍军人大学就业权衡的见解，并发现这种好处可能有助于残疾退伍军人改善他们的劳动力市场结果。退伍军人 SCD 水平分布的未来变化将转化为对高等教育需求的变化。此外，残疾退伍军人对更慷慨的高等教育财政援助的高度反应可能会为平民残疾人人口的类似补贴的有效设计提供有用的见解。