The completed life-cycle Union Army data set is based on 35,570 men out of a randomly drawn sample of 39,616 males who were mustered into the Union Army during 1861-1865. Socioeconomic and biomedical histories of the recruits from childhood to death have been created by linking together information from different sources.
The specific aims of this program project are: 1) to investigate the impact of socioeconomic and biomedical insults during developmental, middle-life, and older ages on the onset of specific chronic diseases at middle and late ages, on the capacity to work during these ages, on the demand for retirement, and on waiting time to death from specific causes; 2) to chart the way in which these life-cycle interactions have changed with successive cohorts that reached age 65 during the twentieth century; 3) to chart the way in which these life-cycle interactions have changed for different races and different socioeconomic groups; 4) to study the impact of familial factors (environmental and genetic elements taken together) on mortality, health in later life, and exceptional longevity; 5) to estimate what types of public health interventions have been most effective in lowering mortality rates and improving health; 6) to expand the range of biomedical and socioeconomic factors that can be considered in the life-cycle Union Army data set by linking it to the 1880 census, which provides health information, and by linking it to data on the epidemiological characteristics of cities and of wards in the late 1800s and early 1900s and 7) to create three new life-cycle samples, one for black Union Army veterans, one for men rejected for service from the Union Army, and one for Union Army veterans found in a large, previously, collected data set gathered from published U.S. family histories. The first two data sets will permit us to examine populations not represented in the life-cycle Union Army data set, the second sample will permit us to consider more fully racial differences in the aging process, and the third sample will allow us to control for familial characteristics.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Research Program Projects (P01)
Project #
3P01AG010120-12S1
Application #
6951333
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZAG1)
Program Officer
Patmios, Georgeanne E
Project Start
1992-03-05
Project End
2006-08-31
Budget Start
2004-09-30
Budget End
2005-08-31
Support Year
12
Fiscal Year
2004
Total Cost
$146,999
Indirect Cost
Name
National Bureau of Economic Research
Department
Type
DUNS #
054552435
City
Cambridge
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02138
Costa, Dora L; Yetter, Noelle; DeSomer, Heather (2018) Intergenerational transmission of paternal trauma among US Civil War ex-POWs. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 115:11215-11220
Costa, Dora L; Kahn, Matthew E; Roudiez, Christopher et al. (2018) Persistent Social Networks: Civil War Veterans Who Fought Together Co-Locate in Later Life. Reg Sci Urban Econ 70:289-299
Costa, Dora L; Kahn, Matthew E; Roudiez, Christopher et al. (2018) Data set from the Union Army samples to study locational choice and social networks. Data Brief 17:226-233
Costa, Dora L; Kahn, Matthew E (2017) DEATH AND THE MEDIA: INFECTIOUS DISEASE REPORTING DURING THE HEALTH TRANSITION. Economica 84:393-416
Costa, Dora L; DeSomer, Heather; Hanss, Eric et al. (2017) Union Army Veterans, All Grown Up. Hist Methods 50:79-95
Bleakley, Hoyt; Hong, Sok Chul (2017) Adapting to the Weather: Lessons from U.S. History. J Econ Hist 77:756-795
Abramitzky, Ran; Boustan, Leah (2017) Immigration in American Economic History. J Econ Lit 55:1311-1345
Bleakley, Hoyt; Ferrie, Joseph (2016) Shocking Behavior: Random Wealth in Antebellum Georgia and Human Capital Across Generations. Q J Econ 131:1455-1495
Costa, Dora (2015) Health and the Economy in the United States, from 1750 to the Present. J Econ Lit 53:503-570
Costa, Dora L; Kahn, Matthew E (2015) Declining Mortality Inequality within Cities during the Health Transition. Am Econ Rev 105:564-9

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