Volume 8, Number 4 (Fall) 1973
Knapp, Charles B. 1973. "A Human Capital Approach to the Burden of the Military Draft." Journal of Human Resources 8(4):485-496.
This article estimates the present value of future income differences attributable to induction for draftees with various military and educational experiences. Using these estimates, a comparison is made of the conscription tax under alternative draft schemes. The results show that: (1) certain types of draftees gain in future income because of induction, and (2) a random draft of 18-year-olds not only minimizes the human capital burden of conscription but would result in an aggregate pecuniary gain for inductees.
The author is Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Texas at Austin. The author gratefully acknowledges support for this project by the Ford Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Graduate School. Thanks go to Fredrick L. Golladay, W. Lee Hansen, and Eugene Smolensky for helpful suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper. All errors which remain are the author's responsibility.
© 2003 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X