Umeå Economic Studies,
Umeå University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper studies how local labour market conditions influence the quality composition of those who volunteer for military service in Swe- den. I estimate a fixed-effects regression model on a panel data set containing IQ scores for those who applied for military basic training across Swedish municipalities during the period 2010 to 2016. The main finding is that low civilian employment rates at the local level tend to increase the mean IQ score of those who volunteer for military service, whereas the opposite is true if employment rates in the civil- ian labour market move in a more favourable direction. As such, the results suggest that the negative impact of a strong civilian economy on recruitment volumes is reinforced by a deterioration in recruit quality.

Keywords: military labour market; military recruitment; self-selection; enlistment test; Roy model

JEL-codes: H56; J01; J20; J45

32 pages, November 22, 2019

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