PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Eynde, Oliver Vanden TI - Military Service and Human Capital Accumulation: Evidence from Colonial Punjab AID - 10.3368/jhr.51.4.1013-5977R1 DP - 2015 Nov 30 TA - Journal of Human Resources 4099 - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2015/11/20/jhr.51.4.1013-5977R1.short 4100 - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2015/11/20/jhr.51.4.1013-5977R1.full AB - This paper estimates the impact of military recruitment during World War 1 on human capital accumulation in colonial Punjab. The empirical strategy exploits the exogenous increase in recruitment by the Indian Army during the war. Higher military recruitment is found to be associated with increased literacy at the district-religion level. The observed improvement in the human capital stock appears to be driven by the informal acquisition of literacy skills by serving soldiers.