Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name:  Arpino, Bruno
Author-Email: bruno.arpino@upf.edu  
Author-Name: Conzo, Pierluigi 
Author-Email: pierluigi.conzo@unito.it
Author-Name: Salustri, Francesco  
Author-Email: francesco.salustri@ndph.ox.ac.uk
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Turin
Author-Workplace-Homepage: http://www.est.unito.it/
Title: I’m a survivor, keep on surviving: Early-life exposure to conflict and subjective survival probabilities in adult life.
Abstract: Life-course analyses have shown that early-life characteristics predict health and socioeconomic status in adult life. 
This study analyses whether experiencing a traumatic event in childhood, i.e. the Second World War (WW2), affects a novel 
adulthood outcome, i.e. perceived longevity. We rely on a representative sample of European adults who were differentially
exposed to WW2 early in life depending on their date and place of birth. Our results show that exposure to WW2 increases expected 
longevity, with socio-economic and health characteristics not playing a mediating role neither in childhood nor in adulthood. 
War exposure also counterbalances the adverse effects of health impairments on subjective survival probabilities, but it does 
not affect health outcomes per se. This latter fact, jointly with low mortality rates of the cohort under investigation, suggests 
that selective mortality and post-traumatic stress are not the main drivers of our findings. Our evidence, instead, provides
support to the hypothesis that personal growth and life appreciation emerge after traumatic events, thereby leading to
optimistic perceptions of longevity among war-exposed respondents. Policy implications are discussed in the light of the 
importance of perceived survival for predicting future health and economic choices.
Length: pages 51
Creation-Date: 2019-01
File-URL: http://www.est.unito.it/do/home.pl/Download?doc=/allegati/wp2019dip/wp_4_2019.pdf
File-Format: Application/PDF
Handle: RePEc:uto:dipeco:201904