How Did Veterans Fare Over the COVID-19 Pandemic? the Role of Health Equity and Access to Care

Historically, United States Veterans have represented an at-risk group for a variety of social ailments, including homelessness, disability, depression, anxiety, substance use disorder, and suicide, among others. This paper presents descriptive evidence on the economic and subjective well-being of Veterans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a combination of novel administrative and survey data, we find no deviation in the trend in weekly wages or labor supply for Veterans relative to non-Veterans during COVID-19. Conditional on working, Veterans still earn about 1.8% more, but they are 5.4 percentage points less likely to be employed. These pre-pandemic cross-sectional differences cannot be explained by demographics (e.g., age or education), income, or either industry or occupational composition. During the pandemic, Veterans exhibit a 0.116 standard deviation (sd) higher level of current life satisfaction, a 1.6 percentage point (pp) higher probability of thriving, and a 0.074 sd higher level of personal finances. Along economic and subjective well-being dimensions, we conclude that Veterans have not be disproportionately harmed by COVID-19. We present suggestive evidence that access to healthcare may serve as an important mechanism behind these results. We find that Veterans living an additional 10 miles from a Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) have a 0.062 sd lower level of current life satisfaction and a 2.5 pp lower probability of thriving