Age, Period and Cohort Differences in the Effect of Military Service on Earnings

Meredith A. Kleykamp, University of Maryland
Alair MacLean, Washington State University Vancouver

Previous researchers have evaluated how the dramatic rise in income inequality has affected the members of various groups of workers, such as those defined by gender, union status, and educational attainment. We extend consideration to how this increase may have affected those who have and have not served in the military. This paper addresses this gap by assessing trends in wage inequality between male veterans and non-veterans, and among veterans between 1979 and 2011. Finding form a variance function regression suggest that similar to other groups, veterans have experienced decreased between-group inequality and increased within-group inequality, and that these changes may stem not just from period but also from cohort effects. Age-period-cohort variance function regression models will be employed to evaluate the relative influence of period and/or cohort effects in between- and with-group inequality.