10
in the absence of the reform, the health of military personnel born 1938–1939 is equal
to the health of other government employees born 1938–1938. The model allows for a
potential parallel shift for military personnel. The assumption thus implies that, in the
absence of the 1992 Bill, any trend in health or consumption of health care during ages
56-70 should be the same for both military and non-military government male
employees. Since we have data on inpatient care for the two groups of civil servants
before the age of 55, the assumption is informally tested in section
by studying the
trends in the health of non-military government employees against the trends of military
government employees before the age of 55.
5.1
Data and sampling
Our empirical analysis exploits micro data originating from administrative registers
maintained by Statistics Sweden. Our data cover the entire Swedish population aged
16–65 during the period 1985–1999, and individuals aged 16–74 during the period
2000–2010. The data contain annual information on a wide range of educational and
demographic characteristics as well as different income sources: income from work,
pensions, social security benefits, and disposable income.
We sample all males born in the period 1931-1939 who were civil servants at the age
of 54 years, i.e., employed in the central government sector. This provides the panel of
interest from which we can observe all inpatient visits for relevant birth cohorts from
age 56 until 70. We observe all death until 2010, which means that the survival time of
the cohort born in 1931 is censored at the age of 79, while the survival time of the
cohort born in 1939 is censored at the age of 71.
Information on hospitalizations and the causes of death for the period 1961-2010 was
provided by the National Board of Health and Welfare and covers all inpatient medical
contacts at public hospitals from 1987 through 1996. This is no major restriction since
virtually all medical care in Sweden at that time was performed by public agents. From
1997 onward, the register also includes privately operated health care. In order for an
individual to be registered with a diagnosis, (s)he must have been admitted to a hospital.
As a general rule, this means that the person has to spend the night at the hospital.
However, starting in 2002 the registers also cover outpatient medical contacts in
specialized care. In this analysis we restrict outcomes in hospitalization to inpatient care
(i.e., hospital nights).
