This thesis will analyze the potential impact of Marine Corps junior officer/enlisted retention if changes are implemented to the military retirement system. The research will be conducted using a discrete choice analysis methodology that is often used to differentiate factors that lead to decisions. Using an online survey, we will ask Marines within their first term of enlistment or contractual obligations to imagine themselves at the end of a contractual period and to make a choice between two proposed future career benefit packages. Each participant will be asked to make a choice between several sets of future career benefit packages. Through the use of multi-nominal logistic regression, we will identify the level of impact on retention decisions after the subjects choose differing attributes of a career package, which include retirement alternatives. Once data are collected through the survey, we will be able to predict the outcome of different retirement alternatives with a certain level of confidence.

Captain, United States Marine Corps;Captain, United States Marine Corps

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http://archive.org/details/impactofretireme1094532852