This is the first report of a two-part project that estimates the determinants of individual enlistment decisions using the 1992 and 1994 wave of the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS).

With contributions from leading researchers, this handbook presents an accurate, self-contained survey of the current state of the economics of education. It summarises the most recent discussions in journals and elucidates new developments.

The capacity and means by which the American Armed Forces defend their nation are entering a paradigm-breaking transition period. Previous transitions have been driven by the technologies of weapons and their platforms. This is not so in the 21st century. Taking the information revolution as a starting point, Battle-Wise argues that only by strengthening the relationship between information technology and brain matter will the U.S. military enhance its ability to outsmart and outfight future adversaries. Our aim is to understand whether and how advantages in thinking and decisionmaking under operational conditions can affect outcomes victories or defeats especially in networked warfare. It is important to identify as precisely as possible the mental abilities, such as anticipation and rapid adaptation, that are of greatest utility in networked operations and thus in strategic competition so that these abilities can be emphasized in the ways that military personnel are recruited, taught, developed, and organized. The role of the mind in networked warfare is still unknown. This book is meant to raise ideas, issues, and possibilities, as well as at the risk of seeming presumptuous a potential framework.

United States Army - Issues, Background, Bibliography

Includes publications previously listed in the supplements to the Index of selected publications of the Rand Corporation (Oct. 1962-Feb. 1963).

This document describes a methodology for imputing AFQT scores for members of the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) sample. It then uses that methodology to explore some implications of test score trends for military recruiting. A forthcoming report uses these estimated test scores in models of individual enlistment behavior. The report will be of interest both to individuals concerned with the methodological issues related to imputing test scores and to those setting recruiting policy.

This work updates previous estimates of individual enlistment models, investigating the relationship between family, individual, local labor market, and other background characteristics and the decision to enlist. The study makes three primary innovations to earlier models. First, it uses data from the early 1990s, while the most recent estimates were from the early 1980s. The data report the enlistment behavior of a cohort of individuals from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) who were high school seniors in 1992. In general, the authors find that their coefficient estimates are similar to those estimated by earlier models, while the mean levels of the explanatory variables are more often significantly different from those in earlier data. Second, the authors explore the utility of including some additional variables in the model that are more relevant to the 1990s or were not available in early data. These include measures of immigrant status, criminal behavior, drug use, in-state college tuition, and whether parents were in the military. The research finds that immigrant status, criminal behavior, and having parents in the military are significant determinants of individual enlistment decisions. Third, the authors estimate the individual enlistment decision as a three-choice decision-whether to enlist, enroll in college, or work after high school graduation-in contrast to earlier studies, which modeled the enlistment decisions as a two-way choice of whether to enlist or not. The study concludes that the trivariate-choice model dominates the bivariate model because it produces more significant coefficient estimates and yields more insights into the reasons that individuals enlist rather than choosing alternative activities.