Date of Award

9-1997

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Abstract

The Department of Defense (DOD) currently spends $8.2 billion dollars a year on military housing and housing allowances and yet there is no empirical model of the housing choices that military families make. This thesis creates a model of the housing choices of military families and then uses the model to predict the effects that changes in several policies would have on the housing decisions of military families. The changes in housing choices are then combined with current 1997 force structure data to predict both the monetary costs and benefits of each policy change. Data from the 1992 Surveys of Officer and Enlisted Personnel and their Spouses are weighted to reflect current force structure levels and are used with the multinomial logit technique of maximum likelihood estimation to develop a model that both gives insight into what factors influence military families' housing decisions as well as how policy changes would affect those housing choices. In particular, changes in policies pertaining to tour length, military pay, and closing costs are investigated. The results from the analyses can assist DOD leadership in making decisions that could save millions in housing costs each year.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-GCA-LAS-97S-4

DTIC Accession Number

ADA329926

Comments

Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Logistics and Acquisition Management of the Air Force Institute of Technology

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