Military Officer Quality in the All-Volunteer Force

Matthew F. Cancian and Michael Klein

No 21372, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We show a statistically significant and quantitatively meaningful decline in the intelligence of Marine Officers from 1980 to 2014 as measured by their scores on the General Classification Test (GCT) which has been shown to be a good predictor of success in the military. This contrasts with the increasing quality of enlisted personnel since 1973 when conscription ended. We argue that the source of this decline is the greater number of young Americans in college since Marine officers must have a four-year degree. The increasing diversity of the pool of incoming officers has not contributed to the decline in GCT scores.

JEL-codes: H56 J4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma
Note: LS
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Published as Military Officer Aptitude in the All-Volunteer Force Matthew Franklin Cancian, Michael W. Klein Armed Forces & Society Vol 44, Issue 2, pp. 219 - 237 First Published April 13, 2017 https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X17695223

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