The AFEES-NLS (Armed Forces Entrance Examination Station-National Longitudinal Survey) Database: A Choice-Based Sample for Studying Enlistment and Post-Enlistment Outcomes

This Note describes prospective research and policty applications of a newly constructed database intended for the analysis of enlistment decisionmaking and post-enlistment outcomes. The database expands the potential for analysis beyond that inherent in aggregate data, the form of data used in nearly all existing studies of enlistments. The constructed database should prove useful in analyzing the determinants of enlistment for different groups of young people, such as students and nonstudents, employed and not employed, and those in their late teens and early twenties. Knowledge of these determinants should be applicable to the formulation of recruiting strategies, to the design of enlistment incentives, and to the prediction of recruit quantity and quality under different economic conditions and accession policies.