THE SOCIOECONOMIC BENEFITS OF ACTIVE MILITARY SERVICE TO RESERVISTS

This article compares the socioeconomic benefits of reservists with pr ior active military service (PS) and reservists with nonprior service (NPS). The economic theory of investment in human capital, the sociolo gical concept of higher educational attainment, and the social psychol ogical theory of the development of personality traits associated with PS are employed to develop a conceptual framework. The ''bridging'' a rgument of greater gains to nonwhite reservists is also tested for dat a for the All Volunteer Force era. Regression analysis of the Defense Manpower Data Center's Reserve Components Surveys (n = 8,000) revealed that individual and family earnings of PS personnel were higher by 6. 8% and 3.5%, respectively, compared to similar earnings of NPS reservi sts. The results also found some support for the bridging hypothesis i n that nonwhite reservists had higher family earnings and higher home ownership relative to white reservists. Limitations of the article for generalizability of the results to all veterans relative to nonvetera ns are also discussed.