In 2004, stretched by wartime deployments, the US Army countered declining retention by increasing re-enlistment bonuses and implementing stop-loss to prevent soldiers from separating at the end of their enlistment. We estimate the effects of bonuses, deployment, and stop-loss on re-enlistment...

Raising and maintaining military forces have posed enormous challenges for the United States and its allies. Economists have made significant contributions to understanding of how to recruit and manage such forces. This paper highlights key past contributions and discusses challenges for future...

Many countries of Europe are moving from conscripted to volunteer military forces. This paper examines the current status of those conversions and interprets them in light of an economic model of the military manpower procurement system choice developed in Warner and Asch (1996). The theoretical...

In this paper we have tested various explanations for differences in rates of economic growth across states. We found no evidence consistent with Olson's hypothesis that differences in state age (a proxy for the strength of special interest groups) can explain differences in state growth....

In fiscal year 1999, the US Air Force introduced a bonus program designed to encourage longer enlistment terms. This regime shift provides a unique opportunity to estimate the elasticity of labor supply at a new margin: the length of the employment contract. A $5000 bonus differential is...

After a decade of successful recruiting, the US military began experiencing recruiting difficulties in the 1990s. Cyclical factors as well as trend factors may have played a role. This paper uses monthly data by state over the period 1989-1997 to estimate models of enlistment and evaluate the...