Early Results on Activations and the Earnings of Reservists

Abstract

In conducting the Global War on Terrorism, the Department of Defense (DoD) has relied heavily on the reserve components. A large fraction of the reserve force has been activated at least once since September 11, 2001, and many of these activations have lasted for more than a year. This more intensive use of the Reserves has been accompanied by concerns that many reservists suffer substantial financial losses as a result of being activated. This report describes research using a sample of Army and Air Force reservists activated in 2001 and 2002 for the Global War on Terrorism. For those reservists, the authors combine information on civilian earnings from Social Security Administration (SSA) data for 2001 with information on military earnings from DoD administrative files to construct an estimate of the effect of activation on the earnings of reservists. Their measure of military earnings includes pay, allowances, and an approximation to the value of the federal tax preference accorded military allowances and military pay received while serving in a combat zone. The sample of reservists on which this report relies is not ideal and constrains the authors' methodological approach in a number of important ways. A final document will employ a more comprehensive sample of reservists and report results from a more complete set of analyses. Those follow-on analyses will employ data on civilian earnings for all reservists for 2000 through 2003 and military earnings through 2004. This expanded database will allow them to consider Navy and Marine reservists, incorporate better controls for observed and unobserved heterogeneity, analyze a larger sample, and provide more disaggregated estimates of earnings impacts attributable to activation.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2005
Accession Number
ADA448570

Entities

People

  • Craig Martin
  • David S. Loughran
  • Jacob Alex Lex Klerman

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Active Duty
  • Air Force
  • Congress
  • Data Centers
  • Department Of Defense
  • Employment
  • Enlisted Personnel
  • Families (Human)
  • Homeland Security
  • Intellectual Property
  • Law
  • Marine Corps
  • Military Personnel
  • National Guard
  • National Security
  • Training
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Military Mobilization and Reserve Forces Studies.
  • Naval Personnel Management