Enlistment Decisions of Young Men

Abstract : This study analyzes factors in the enlistment decisions of two segments of the recruiting market: high school seniors, and nonstudent high school graduates. It draws on data from the 1979 Department of Defense Survey of Personnel Entering Military Service and from the 1979 wave of the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Force Behavior, Youth Survey. The authors base their empirical analysis on hypotheses derived from the theories of investment in human capital and career choice, and on the theory of recruiter behavior. They find that seniors and graduates differ substantially in the empirical determinants of their enlistment decisions; education of their enlistment decisions; education expectations play a major role in enlistment behavior; and a graduate's enlistment probability is much less in areas with a fairly high proportion of seniors and recent graduates, whereas a senior's enlistment probability is unaffected. Keywords include: Recruiting, Enlisted personnel, and Students.