The Military and the Transition to Adulthood (with Ryan Kelty and David Segal)
The Future of Children (in press)
Abstract: Ryan Kelty, Meredith Kleykamp, and David Segal examine the effect of military service on the transition to adulthood. They highlight changes since World War II in the role of the military in the lives of young adults, focusing especially on how the move from a conscription to an all-volunteer military has changed the way military service affects youths’ approach to adult responsibilities.The authors note that today’s all-volunteer military is both career-oriented and family-oriented, and they show how the material and social support the military provides to young servicemen and women promotes responsible membership in family relationships and the wider community. As a result, they argue, the transition to adulthood, including economic independence from parents, is more stable and orderly for military personnel than for their civilian peers. At the same time, they stress that serving in the military in a time of war holds dangers for young adults. The authors examine four broad areas of military service, focusing in each on how men and women in uniform today make the transition to adulthood. They begin by looking at the social characteristics of those who serve, especially at differences in access to the military and its benefits by socio-demographic characteristics, such as age, gender, race and ethnicity, social class, and sexual orientation. The authors also explore the effect of military service on family formation, including the timing of marriage and parenthood, family structure, and the influence of military culture on families. Family formation among servicemen and women, they observe, is earlier and more stable than among civilians of the same age. They then consider the educational and employment consequences of service. Finally, they scrutinize the dangers of military service during times of war and examine the physical and psychological effects of wartime military service. They also note the sexual trauma endured both by male and female military personnel and the physical and symbolic violence women can experience in a male-dominated institution. The authors conclude by seeking policy lessons from the military’s success in facilitating the transition to adulthood for young men and women in uniform.

Where Did the Soldiers Go? The Effects of Military Downsizing on College Enrollment and Employment
Social Science Research (in press) 

Abstract. This paper examines how the military drawdown in the early 1990s influenced aggregate trends in employment and college enrollment, evaluating whether the loss of military jobs resulted in observable increases or decreases in employment rates and/or college enrollment rates. Contrary to the expectation of worsening employment among black men in particular, the drawdown had little effect on employment. However, changes in military service did have a considerable impact on college enrollment among black men. The loss of military jobs was actually associated with substantial increases in college going; college enrollments among black men may have been as much as 10% points lower had they served in the military at the same levels observed in the early 1980s.

Hispanics and Organized Labor in the United States, 1973 to 2007(with Jake Rosenfeld)
American Sociological Review (2009) 74(6): 916-937

Abstract. Prior research finds that minority populations in the United States secure union employment as part of the process of economic incorporation. Yet little work systematically tests whether this pattern holds for the nation's largest minority, Hispanics, during recent decades of union decline. After juxtaposing traditional labor market position theories of unionization with solidaristic accounts, we use 1973 to 2007 Current Population Survey (CPS) data to provide the most comprehensive analysis of Hispanics and organized labor in the United States to date. We disaggregate the Hispanic population by citizenship, nationality, and time since arrival to uncover subpopulation differences in the odds of union membership. Additional analyses take advantage of the CPS structure to target individuals who join a union, allowing us to test whether organized labor's much-publicized efforts to incorporate recent immigrants have resulted in detectable gains. Consistent with solidaristic accounts of labor organization, results suggest that certain Hispanic subpopulations—especially those born in the United States and immigrants who have secured citizenship—have higher unionization odds and join unions at higher rates than do U.S.-born whites, even after controlling for traditional positional accounts of labor organization. However, the large substantive effects of positional variables, such as sector, occupation, and firm size, indicate that organized labor's revival depends on more than any one group's capacity for collective action.

A Great Place to Start? The Effect of Prior Military Service on Hiring
Armed Forces and Society (2009) 35(2): 266-285

Abstract. This article examines the effect of prior military service on hiring for entry-level jobs in a major metropolitan labor market.The research employs an audit method in which resumes differing only in the presentation of military experience versus civilian work experience are faxed in response to an advertised position.Results suggest that employers exhibit preferential treatment of black military veterans with transferable skills over black nonveterans. Veterans with traditional military experience in the combat arms do not experience preferential treatment byemployers, regardless of racial/ethnic background. These findings suggest a possible mechanism generating the post military employment benefit among blacks found in prior observational studies. A veteran premium in hiring may stem from the concentration of blacks in military occupational specialties with a high degree of civilian transferability, combined with employer preferences for military veterans with such work experience over their nonveteran peers. 

Military Enlistment of Hispanic Youth: Obstacles and Opportunities(with Beth J. Asch, Christopher Buck, Jacob Alex Klerman, and David S. Loughran)
RAND Monograph MG773 (2009) 222pp.

College, Jobs or the Military?
Social Science Quarterly (2006) 87(2): 272-290

Did Falling Wages and Employment Increase U.S. Imprisonment?(with Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld)
Social Forces (2006) 84(4):2291-2311

What Factors Affect the Military Enlistment of Hispanic Youth?(with Beth J. Asch, Christopher Buck, Jacob Alex Klerman, and David S. Loughran)
RAND Documented Briefing DB-484

Crime Punishment and American Inequality (With Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld)
in Social Inequality (2004) ed. Katherine Neckerman, Russell Sage Foundation, New York.

A Bayesian Change Point Model for Historical Time Series Analysis (with Bruce Western)
Political Analysis (2004) 12(4):354-374

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH STATUS OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS: A COMPARATIVE ETHNIC PERSPECTIVE (with Marta Tienda)
Research in Social Stratification and Mobility (2004) 22:149-185