Military Rank Premium Analysis
Project Overview
Developed a novel statistical methodology to analyze the effects of military ranks on post-service wages, accounting for endogeneity in rank assignment. This research addressed a significant methodological challenge in labor economics and provided insights into the economic returns to military service.
Methodology
Created a Control Function Approach for partly ordered endogenous treatments, extending existing econometric methods to handle the unique structure of military rank data. Collected and analyzed comprehensive data on military service and subsequent civilian employment outcomes. Applied the methodology to estimate the causal effect of military rank on civilian wages.
Results
The analysis revealed significant wage premiums associated with higher military ranks, even after controlling for selection effects and other confounding factors. The methodology successfully corrected for endogeneity bias that had affected previous estimates in the literature.
Conclusion
This research contributed to both the methodological literature on causal inference and the substantive understanding of military service's economic impacts. The paper was published in the Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, a leading journal in the field.
