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Why We Fight: Understanding Military Participation over the Life Cycle

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  • David R. Mann

Abstract

Looming reductions in military spending have sparked great interest in how military personnel respond to the incentives they face. This paper specifies a dynamic career decision model that includes military service options to understand how human capital, compensation, the business cycle, and combat risk affect the military labor supply. The model is estimated using data on males from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Experimental results show that the military wage elasticity of military participation is 3 percent, entering the workforce during an adverse business cycle state increases military participation by 3 percent, and combat death risk strongly affects military participation.

Suggested Citation

  • David R. Mann, 2012. "Why We Fight: Understanding Military Participation over the Life Cycle," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(4), pages 279-315.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jhucap:doi:10.1086/668863
    DOI: 10.1086/668863
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    Cited by:

    1. 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).
    2. Asoni, Andrea & Sanandaji, Tino, 2013. "Rich Man’s War, Poor Man’s Fight? Socioeconomic Representativeness in the Modern Military," Working Paper Series 965, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 16 Dec 2014.
    3. Pinka Chatterji & Xiangshi Liu & Barış K. Yörük, 2019. "Effects of the 2010 Affordable Care Act Dependent Care Provision on Military Participation Among Young Adults," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 45(1), pages 87-111, January.
    4. Ryan D. Edwards, 2015. "Overseas Deployment, Combat Exposure, and Well-Being in the 2010 National Survey of Veterans," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(1), pages 64-93.

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