Who Will Fight? The All-Volunteer Army after 9/11

S-Tier
Journal: American Economic Review
Year: 2017
Volume: 107
Issue: 5
Pages: 415-19

Score contribution per author:

2.681 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Who fought the War on Terror? We find that as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan progressed, there was an increase in the fraction of active-duty Army enlistees who were white or from high-income neighborhoods and that these two groups selected combat occupations more often. Among men, we find an increase in deployment and combat injuries for white and Hispanic soldiers relative to black soldiers and for soldiers from high-income neighborhoods relative to those from low-income neighborhoods. This finding suggests that an all-volunteer force does not compel a disproportionate number of non-white and low socio-economic men to fight America's wars.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aecrev:v:107:y:2017:i:5:p:415-19
Journal Field
General
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-25