This paper examines the local economic impacts of NATO base closures in France following President Charles de Gaulle’s 1966 decision to withdraw from NATO’s integrated military command. In our preliminary analysis, a panel of 34,473 municipalities allows us to track cities over time to evaluate the causal impact of base closures. Using a difference-in-differences approach combined with propensity score matching, we exploit spatial variation in base closures to estimate their effect on population growth in affected cities. Our results indicate that cities within 35 km of a base experienced a 0.2 percentage point decrease in annual population growth for up to 30 years post-closure. To determine the mechanisms behind this effect, we will exploit various data sources on individuals’ city of birth and city of residence to test for migration effects, information on individual employment to uncover effects on unemployment, and data on businesses to measure long term economic activity.

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