Racial Harassment, Job Satisfaction and Intentions to Remain in the Military

44 Pages Posted: 9 Jun 2005

See all articles by Heather Antecol

Heather Antecol

Claremont McKenna College - Robert Day School of Economics and Finance; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Deborah A. Cobb-Clark

School of Economics, University of Sydney; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Date Written: June 2005

Abstract

Our results indicate that two-thirds of active-duty military personnel report experiencing offensive racial behaviors in the previous 12 months, while approximately one in ten report threatening racial incidents or career-related discrimination. Racial harassment significantly increases job dissatisfaction irrespective of the form of harassment considered. Furthermore, threatening racial incidents and career-related discrimination heighten intentions to leave the military, though there is no significant effect of racially offensive behavior on the intended job change of active-duty personnel. Finally, our results point to the importance of accounting for unobserved individual- and job-specific heterogeneity when assessing the consequences of racial harassment. In particular, single-equation models result in estimated effects of racial harassment on job satisfaction and intended job change that are generally understated.

Keywords: Job Satisfaction, Racial Harassment, Quits, Military Employment

JEL Classification: J16, J28

Suggested Citation

Antecol, Heather and Cobb-Clark, Deborah A., Racial Harassment, Job Satisfaction and Intentions to Remain in the Military (June 2005). IZA Discussion Paper No. 1636, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=740065 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.740065

Heather Antecol

Claremont McKenna College - Robert Day School of Economics and Finance ( email )

500 E. Ninth Street
Claremont, CA 91711
United States

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Deborah A. Cobb-Clark (Contact Author)

School of Economics, University of Sydney ( email )

606 Social Sciences Bldg. (A02)
The University of Sydney
Sydney, NSW 2006
Australia
61435061387 (Phone)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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