07.07.2021 New Open Access Publication: Growing up in the Iran–Iraq war and preferences for strong defense

Professors Farzanegan and Gholipour have published a new study in the Review of Development Economics. The study examines the relationship between individuals’ experiences of the Iran–Iraq war (1980–1988) during early adulthood (18–25 years) and their preference for strong national defense forces and their willingness to fight for Iran (in the event of another war).

Using the World Values Survey data, they provide evidence that Iranians who experienced the war during their early adulthood give top priority to strong defense forces. However, authors find that there is no significant association between individuals’ experiences of the war during early adulthood and their willingness to fight for Iran. The results are robust to controlling for a set of individuals’ socioeconomic and political characteristics as well as different age cohorts. Finally, they show that the results are not influenced by age cohort effect.

• This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri bution-NonCo mmercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes:

https://doi.org/10.1111/rode.12806

• Citation: Farzanegan, M.R., Gholipour, H.F., 2021. Growing up in the Iran–Iraq war and preferences for strong defense. Review of Development Economics, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1111/rode.12806