Guns, Butter, and Federal Careers: Growth, Decline, and Personnel in Defense and Domestic Agencies
研究发现1976至1995年间，国防部雇员职级低于其他联邦机构，即使里根扩军期间也如此；扩军时晋升率和新人质量提升、薪资劣势缩小，但衰退后逆转，且男性（尤其是白人男性）是主要受益者。
Comparably educated and experienced federal employees held lower grades in the Department of Defense (DOD) than in the rest of the civil service in every year between 1976 and 1995, even at the height of President Reagan's defense build-up. DOD promotion rates jumped, the quality of DOD new hires rose, and the DOD pay disadvantage shrank during the build-up, then reversed course once DOD fell into decline. Men (especially white men) in DOD were the primary beneficiaries of the defense build-up, increasing their share of DOD employment and widening their salary advantage over women in comparable jobs. Other hypotheses about the impact of agency growth and decline found little support in the data.