MCD Selected Studies

The study examines the manpower system for unrestricted officers, documenting the degree to which officer inventories did not match requirements and identifying options for addressing shortfalls. The authors examine the FY92-FY05 period to identify systematic shortages by primary military occupational specialty (PMOS) and analyze promotion rates by PMOS to see if promotion rates differ.

The Department of Defense (DoD) is considering ways to increase voluntary participation in the Reserves. One such proposal, the Continuum of Service (CoS), recognizes that people differ in their willingness and ability to accept activation and deployment. DoD asked CNA researchers to examine potential changes to the compensation system that would support voluntary participation in a CoS. Researchers concluded that policy-makers can use compensation tools to effectively implement a CoS, but that across-the-board compensation changes would not encourage participation. They also found no evidence to support the idea that implementing a CoS, or increasing compensation to support a CoS, would significantly increase reserve retention. Researchers say a cost-effective CoS will rely on targeted compensation.

In this memorandum, we assess the extent to which major, existing compensation tools align with the Department of the Navy’s (DoN’s) goals and principles and recommend changes that would better align compensation with these goals. Our recommendations revolve around three themes. First, the current system is inflexible and does not maximize taxpayers’ return on investment. A better-aligned system would expand use of the DoN’s more flexible compensation tools. Second, the DoN does not have any tools that are explicitly designed to reward high performance. However, existing compensation tools could be modified to provide this linkage. Finally, the current system is heavily skewed toward deferred compensation such as retirement pay, retiree health care, and TRICARE for Life. The DoN should seek to remove this bias by supporting the repeal of recent enhancements to these programs or, at a minimum, by aggressively resisting any further increases. More generally, offering cafeteria-style health care and retirement benefits would improve flexibility and help maximize effectiveness.

This paper examines immigration’s effects on the recruitable-age population and the success of non-citizen service members in the military. We find that, controlling for other factors, 3-month attrition rates for non-citizens are 3.7 percentage points lower than for citizens. Similarly, 36-month attrition rates for non-citizen accessions are between 9 and 20 percentage points lower than those for white U.S. citizens.