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Balancing Two Lives
The Relationship of Activation, Pay, and Retention Among U.S. Air Force Reserve Pilots
Following the events of September 11th, the average days served by the part-time pilots of the Air Force Reserve doubled and, at times, tripled compared to the pre-September 11th rates. These part-time pilots in the Air Force Reserve often work for civilian airlines and earn some of the highest civilian incomes in the nation. Both Congress and the Department of Defense have expressed concerns that if activation causes income losses for activated members, these losses might lead some reservists to leave the reserves earlier than they otherwise would have and might also prevent some potential reservists from ever joining the reserves. This dissertation analyzes whether the increased activation of reserve pilots negatively affects their earnings and retention rates. The author uses information relevant to the dual-employment aspect of part-time, reserve pilots to develop a theoretical model for how an individual might behave when choosing between reserve activation time and civilian employment opportunities. The insights from this model provide the basis for two empirical analyses. The results of both analyses suggest that positive income and retention impacts are associated with increased activation service.
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Contents
Chapter One:
Introduction
Chapter Two:
Data
Chapter Three:
The Other Life: Civilian Employment Opportunities
Chapter Four:
Predicting the Activation Behavior of an RC Pilot
Chapter Five:
Activation Patterns of RC Pilots
Chapter Six:
The Effect of Activation on RC Pilot Earnings
Chapter Seven:
How Separation Rates Change with Activation
Chapter Eight:
Conclusions
Chapter Nine:
Bibliography
Chapter Ten:
Appendices
This document was submitted as a dissertation in December 2006 in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the doctoral degree in public policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. The faculty committee that supervised and approved the dissertation consisted of James R. Hosek (Chair), David S. Loughran, and Albert A. Robbert III.
This product is part of the Pardee RAND Graduate School (PRGS) dissertation series. PRGS dissertations are produced by graduate fellows of the Pardee RAND Graduate School, the world's leading producer of Ph.D.'s in policy analysis. The dissertation has been supervised, reviewed, and approved by a PRGS faculty committee overseeing the dissertation.
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