Consequences of Forced Labor Conscription: Evidence from Dutch Civilians after WWII

Abstract
Forced labor remains to be a large issue in today's economy. According to estimates by the International Labour Organization, almost 28 million people were working under some form of coercion in 2021. In this paper, I study the causal effects of facing labor coercion on long-term individual labor market outcomes. I exploit the setting of displaced Dutch civilians who were conscripted by Nazi Germany during WWII based on their birth year and compare individuals born just above the cut-off date to those just below the cut-off date. Using Dutch census data from 1971 and Eurobarometer survey data from 1975 to 1994, I estimate the effects on individuals' later educational attainment, skill level of occupation, and income. I find that there are negative effects on income and skill level of occupation for those individuals who had already started their career in the Netherlands prior to the coercion, while there are no negative effects for those who were drafted right after finishing high school.