Volume 4, Number 1 (Winter) 1969
Altman, Stuart H. 1969. "Earnings, Unemployment, and the Supply of Enlisted Volunteers." Journal of Human Resources 4(1):38-59.
If the draft is to be eliminated and an all-volunteer system substituted in its place, it is essential that the military be able to recruit additional personnel through higher pay. In this study an attempt is made to measure the likely impact on new enlistments of raising military pay by estimating the extent to which regional enlistments have varied in relation to relative military to civilian earnings. A cross-section supply model was estimated using actual with-draft enlistment experience and estimates of the enlistment rates that would have prevailed without a draft.
The supply elasticities derived in the paper tend to support the conclusion that volunteers could be attracted to active duty by raising military pay, but that the larger the proportion of the eligible population in military service, the more expensive it would become to recruit additional manpower.
The author is Associate Professor of Economics, Brown University. Most of the work reported in this paper was completed while the author was an Economic Consultant to the Department of Defense Study of the Draft. The author wishes to thank all those associated with the Economic Analysis Section of the Draft Study, and a particular debt of gratitude is owed to Professor Walter Y. Oi, Mr. William M. Mahoney, and Dr. Harold Wool. The views expressed in this paper, however, are solely the responsibility of the author and do not in any way reflect those of the Department of Defense.
© 2003 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X