IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v75y1985i1p228-34.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Military Enlistments: What Can We Learn from Geographic Variation?

Author

Listed:
  • Brown, Charles

Abstract

This paper analyzes the determinants of the supply of enlistees to the U.S. Army, using quarterly data from 1975:4 through 1982:3 for the 50 states and the District of Columbia. For high-quality enlistees, defined as those with test scores in the top half of the population or top scoring individuals who are also high school graduates, supply elasticities with respect to military compensation are estimated to be about 1.0. Elasticities with respect to the unemployment rate center on 0.5, larger than most previous estimates. Recruiting resources have the expected effects (Army recruiters increase and other services recruiters reduce Army enlistments). Advertising (both national and local) does not have consistently positive effects. Results are similar for high school graduates,except that the effect of military compensation depends crucially on how it is measured. Estimates of the supply of enlistees of all qualities are weaker still: estimates of compensation effects vary widely, and estimated effects of recruiters and advertising are less plausible. Unemployment elasticities of about 0.3 are smaller than for high-quality recruits, but hardlyn egligible.A tentative explanation for the weaker results of the latter two groupsis that the number of such enlistees is not supply determined, but reflect demand constraints as well. Further work is needed to determine how standards for enlistees vary in each recruiting district in response to both national and local fluctuations in recruit supply.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Brown, Charles, 1985. "Military Enlistments: What Can We Learn from Geographic Variation?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(1), pages 228-234, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:75:y:1985:i:1:p:228-34
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rohlfs Chris, 2012. "The Economic Cost of Conscription and an Upper Bound on the Value of a Statistical Life: Hedonic Estimates from Two Margins of Response to the Vietnam Draft," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, De Gruyter, vol. 3(3), pages 1-37, August.
    2. Cyril E. Kearl & David K. Horne & Curtis L. Gilroy, 1990. "Army Recruiting In A Changing Environment," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 8(4), pages 68-78, October.
    3. Georgios P. Kouretas & Mark E. Wohar, 2012. "The dynamics of inflation: a study of a large number of countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(16), pages 2001-2026, June.
    4. Glaser, Darrell J. & Rahman, Ahmed S., 2023. "Between the dockyard and the deep blue sea—Retention and personnel economics in the Royal Navy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    5. Bäckström, Peter, 2020. "Essays on Military Labour Supply in the Era of Voluntary Recruitment," Umeå Economic Studies 965, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    6. Julide Yildirim & Nebile Korucu & Semsettin Karasu, 2010. "Further Education Or Re-Enlistment Decision In Turkish Armed Forces: A Seemingly Unrelated Probit Analysis," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 89-103.
    7. David T. Ellwood & David A. Wise, 1987. "Uncle Sam Wants You-Sometimes: Military Enlistments and the Youth Labor Market," NBER Chapters, in: Public Sector Payrolls, pages 97-118, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Chaturvedi, Alok & Mehta, Shailendra & Dolk, Daniel & Ayer, Rick, 2005. "Agent-based simulation for computational experimentation: Developing an artificial labor market," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 166(3), pages 694-716, November.
    9. Larry DeBoer & B. Wade Brorsen, 1989. "A Note On Congressional Military Pay Setting," Public Finance Review, , vol. 17(1), pages 96-107, January.
    10. John T. Warner, 1990. "MILITARY RECRUITING PROGRAMS DURING THE 1980s: THEIR SUCCESS AND POLICY ISSUES," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 8(4), pages 47-67, October.
    11. Barr, Andrew, 2016. "Enlist or enroll: Credit constraints, college aid, and the military enlistment margin," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 61-78.
    12. Cesur, Resul & Sabia, Joseph J. & Tekin, Erdal, 2013. "The psychological costs of war: Military combat and mental health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 51-65.
    13. Bäckström, Peter, 2019. "Self-Selection and Recruit Quality in Sweden’s All Volunteer Force: Do Civilian Opportunities Matter?," Umeå Economic Studies 964, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    14. Bäckström, Peter, 2023. "Empirical Essays on Military Service and the Labour Market," Umeå Economic Studies 1012, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    15. Boyle Glenn, 2008. "Pay Peanuts and Get Monkeys? Evidence from Academia," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-26, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:75:y:1985:i:1:p:228-34. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.