Hiring Preferences for Military Veterans: Evidence from a Stated Choice Experiment

Peter Bäckström ()
Additional contact information
Peter Bäckström: Department of Economics, Umeå University, Postal: Department of Economics, Umeå University, S 901 87 Umeå, Sweden, https://www.umu.se/handelshogskolan

No 1037, Umeå Economic Studies from Umeå University, Department of Economics

Abstract: Successfully finding and maintaining civilian employment is crucial for military veterans' reintegration into civilian society. This paper examines how formerly deployed Swedish military veterans are treated in civilian hiring situations using data from a stated-choice experiment. Approximately 1,000 survey respondents were asked to imagine advising on recruitment for a job similar to their own and to choose repeatedly between two hypothetical job applicants, some of whom were described as military veterans. The results indicate that former military deployment can be both an advantage and a disadvantage in job applications, depending on the occupational field and recruiter characteristics. Military veterans who served as infantry soldiers face obstacles when applying for jobs in social professions, especially if the recruiter is female or lacks personal experience with military veterans. Conversely, veterans who served in military staff positions are more likely to be called for an interview, particularly if the recruiter is male, has personal experience with military veterans, or if the job is for a managerial position. These findings suggest that the impact of military deployment on job prospects is highly context-dependent.

Keywords: military veterans; hiring; choice experiment; hiring bias (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 H56 J24 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2025-10-02
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.usbe.umu.se/ues/ues1037.pdf Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:umnees:1037

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Umeå Economic Studies from Umeå University, Department of Economics Department of Economics, Umeå University, S-901 87 Umeå, Sweden. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by David Skog ().