Specification of veteran status in estimating post-service civilian earnings.

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the earnings of veterans and nonveterans by race over a fourteen year period from 1966 to 1980, using the National Longitudinal Survey for Young Men aged 14 to 24 in 1966. The primary finding is that bonafide first term enlistees tend to have different returns to their veteran status than veterans as a whole and multi-term veterans in particular, and that these returns, on average, tend to be positive. This thesis also develops criteria for a single term of enlistment by length of service in a particular branch of the armed forces. In support of these findings, a working definition of full employment is also developed. The estimates of earnings equations for the fully employed subset of people are compared to the entire sample of National Longitudinal Survey of Young Men.