The volunteer armed forces play a major role in the American youth labor market, but little is known about the effects of voluntary militaiy service on earnings. The effects of military service are difficult to measure because veterans are both self-selected and screened by the military. This study uses two strategies to reduce selection bias in estimates of the effects of militaiy service on the earnings of veterans. Both approaches involve the analysis of a special match of Social Security earning records to administrative data on applicants to the armed forces. The first strategy compares applicants who enlisted with applicants who did not enlist, while controlling for most of the characteristics used by the military to select soldiers from the applicant pool. This is implemented using matching methods and regression. The second strategy uses instrumental variables that were generated by an error in the scoring of the exams that screen military applicants. Estimates from both strategies are interpreted using models with heterogeneous potential outcomes. The empirical results suggest that soldiers who served in the early 1980s were paid considerably more than comparable civilians while in the military, and that military service is associated with higher employment rates for veterans after service. In spite of this employment gain, however, military service led to only a modest long-run increase in the civilian earnings of nonwhite veterans while actually reducing the civilian earnings of white veterans.

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Estimating the labor market impact of voluntary military service using social security data on military applicants

This study uses Social Security data on the earnings of military applicants to the all-volunteer forces to compare the earnings of Armed Forces veterans with the earnings of military applicants who did not enlist. Matching, regression, and Instrumental Variables (IV) estimates are presented. The matching and regression estimates control for most of the characteristics used by the military to select qualified applicants from the military applicant pool. The IV estimates exploit an error in the scoring of exams used by the military to screen applicants between 1976 and 1980. All the estimates suggest that soldiers who served in the early 1980s were paid considerably more than comparable civilians while in the military. Military service also appears to have led to a modest (less than 10 percent) increase in the civilian earnings of nonwhite veterans while actually reducing the civilian earnings of white veterans. Most of the positive effects of military service on civilian earnings appear to be attributable to improved employment prospects for veterans.

Estimating the Labor Market Impact of Voluntary Military Service Using Social Security Data on Military Applicants

We review research published in the past 15 years that explores the relationship between military service and the life course, focusing on criminal careers, marital status, lifelong health, and socioeconomic attainment. Throughout the review, we note the extent to which studies find that veterans experienced different outcomes in different historical periods, ranging from World War II to the more recent voluntary armed forces. The effects of military service depend on whether health, criminal, socioeconomic, or marital outcomes are considered. They also depend on the timing and era of service, and veterans’ family background and individual characteristics such as race and delinquency. Nevertheless, the evidence to date suggests one general conclusion: Veterans exposed to combat have suffered worse outcomes than noncombat veterans and than nonveterans. We conclude with suggestions for future research including a tighter integration of the research questions and strategies that have been employed to...

Military Service in the Life Course

Reform has transformed traditional entitlement to cash welfare under Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) into a transitional program known as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). Because of the new work requirements and the time-limited nature of assistance, policy makers are increas- ingly confronted with what to do when welfare recipients do not effectively make the transition from welfare to work. Increasingly, the language of public health is being used to determine who is "employable" and who is not. Thus renewed attention is being focused on the individual characteristics of participants themselves, particularly specific diagnoses that might reduce employability. This article focuses on substance abuse and mental health problems among single mothers and examines their rela- tionship to welfare receipt. We analyze data from the 1994 and 1995 National House- hold Survey of Drug Abuse (NHSDA) and find that 19 percent of welfare recipients meet the criteria for a DSM-III-R (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Dis- orders, third edition revised) psychiatric diagnosis. About the same percentage have used illicit drugs during the previous year. Logistic regression results indicate that mental and behavioral health problems that are significant barriers to self-sufficiency are increasingly important in this era of time-limited benefits.

Welfare reform, substance use, and mental health.

Objective. This article questions what factors are associated with joining the military after high school rather than attending college, joining the civilian labor force, or doing some other activity. Three areas of influence on military enlistment are highlighted: educational goals, the institutional presence of the military in communities, and race and socioeconomic status. Method. The analysis uses data from a recent cohort of high school graduates from the State of Texas in 2002, when the United States was at war, and employs multinomial logistic regression to model the correlates of post-high-school choice of activity in this cohort. Results. Results confirm the hypothesis that a higher military institutional presence increases the odds of enlisting in the military relative to enrolling in college, becoming employed, or doing some other activity after high school. Additionally, college aspirations are clearly associated with the decision to enroll in college versus enlist and also increase the odds of joining the military rather than the civilian labor market, or remaining idle. Unlike previous studies, few racial and ethnic differences are found. Conclusion. Voluntary military enlistment during wartime is associated college aspirations, lower socioeconomic status, and living in an area with a high military presence.

College, Jobs, or the Military? Enlistment During a Time of War†

The effect of military service on the subsequent civilian wage of the post-Vietnam veteran

Our intuition tells us that using drugs use such as heroin, cocaine, psychedelics, hashish, and even marijuana and alcohol can have serious effects on our personal life and may have broader detrime...

The effect of drug use on wages : A human capital interpretation

The purpose of this study was, first, to estimate the impact of alcohol and drug use on the employment status of men and women and, second, to examine whether a history of past use, as opposed to current use, adversely affects the propensity to be employed. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth we conducted a cross-sectional and a longitudinal analysis with logistic regression estimation to model the probability that a person was employed in 1992. In addition to usual regressors, interactions between substance use measures, between substance use measures and human capital variables, and between substance use measures and race dummies were included in the equation. The longitudinal analysis utilized a conditional likelihood method based on employment data in 1992 and 1988 and included the difference between 1992 regressors and their 1988 counterparts. A comparison was made between the prediction accuracy of the logit choice model, linear discriminant analysis, k-nearest neighbor analysis, and three modern classification methods that are used extensively in the area of machine learning. Results showed that the logit model performs relatively well in classifying individuals into employed and unemployed categories based on individual attributes. Results of the cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis were mixed but not inconsistent with our prior expectations that use of alcohol or drug has a negative impact on a person's propensity to be employed. Cross-sectional results show a clear negative impact of past substance use on a person's employment probability among all demographic groups examined (by gender: all persons, blacks, Hispanics, families with income below the poverty line, and high users of alcohol or drugs). However, when current and past use are considered together, only women seem to experience negative impacts. The results of the longitudinal analysis are less clear, although they do indicate that negative impacts are associated with the interaction between substance use measures and human capital variables. Limitations of the study are pointed out and suggestions are made for future research.

The Impact of Alcohol and Drug Use on Employment: A Labor Market Study Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

The problem of obtaining lower prediction bounds for a future observation from a Weibull population at design stress level is investigated using Type II censored accelerated life test data from higher than design stress levels. By assuming the scale par..

V. A. Samaranayake

Papers

The effect of military service on the subsequent civilian wage of the post-Vietnam veteran

The effect of drug use on wages : A human capital interpretation

The Impact of Alcohol and Drug Use on Employment: A Labor Market Study Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

Prediction Bounds in Accelerated Life Testing: Weibull Models with Inverse Power Relationship