Publications
Publications
- 2022
- HBS Working Paper Series
Discrimination and State Capacity: Evidence from WWII U.S. Army Enlistment
By: Nancy Qian and Marco Tabellini
Abstract
This paper investigates the empirical relationship between inclusion and state capacity, as theorized by Besley and Persson (2009). We examine the impact of racial discrimination on Black U.S. military enlistment during the onset of WWII. We find that discrimination had a large and negative effect on volunteer enlistment after the Pearl Harbor attack. The result is robust to a large number of controls that account for potential confounders. The negative effect of discrimination is moderated by geographical proximity to Pearl Harbor, and is larger for educated men. We provide consistent evidence for Japanese Americans.
Keywords
Citation
Qian, Nancy, and Marco Tabellini. "Discrimination and State Capacity: Evidence from WWII U.S. Army Enlistment." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-005, July 2020. (Revised March 2022. Available also from KelloggInsight, HBS Working Knowledge, and NBER.)