Data on Conscription

With this panel data from 106 countries from 2000 until 2016, I tried to analyze the nexus between compulsory military service (CMS) laws and labor market performance as measured by employment rates and unemployment rates. For the main variable of interest, which is CMS, I used mainly the Economic Freedom of the World Index (EFW). Besides some governmental sources for some countries in the MENA region that EFW did not include. I went through the text of laws that governs military recruitment in some countries to show whether CMS exists in these countries, and then followed the same pattern of EFW. The theoretical literature on the topic had consensus on the costs affiliated with compulsory military service laws. However, the empirical literature did not share the same consensus as the empirical results were mixed with respect to the effect of compulsory military service law on different economic outcomes. I found that compulsory military service laws were likely to significantly reduce employment rates. Additionally, the regression results showed that the longer the length of compulsory military service the more significant the effect.