Full-time Vs. Part-time: An Evaluation of the Competitiveness of Reserve Officers by Commissioning Source

Abstract

This research examines whether the quality of officers commissioned under the Reserve Officer Commissioning Program (ROCP) differs from those officers who entered the reserve component with a prior period of active service. As the ROCP matures, more officers serve in the Selected Marine Corps Reserve (SMCR) without serving their initial service obligation in the active component. Officers commissioned via the ROCP will not have the same saturation of active service. I seek to determine whether the concept that active component service improves an officer’s performance is true. Using measures of performance and retention, I analyze whether there is a difference between ROCP officers when compared to reserve officers with prior active service. The results show that while certain variables contribute to a statistically significant difference in relative values between the two groups of officers, the value of these differences is too small to be economically meaningful. Ultimately, I find that the performance of ROCP officers and officers with prior active service is similar.