Abstract
We employ the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data to explore the effect of youthful drinking on years of schooling and on the likelihood of college graduation. Our instruments for youthful drinking include the state beer tax and the minimum purchase age. Reduced form equations are also estimated. Our results indicate that heavy drinking in high school reduces the average number of years of schooling completed following high school. Other things equal, students who spend their high school years in states with relatively high taxes and minimum age are more likely to graduate from college.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 411-429 |
Number of pages | 19 |
Journal | Journal of Health Economics |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 1993 |
Funding
Correspondence to: P.J. Cook, PO Box 90245, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA. Fax (919) 681-8288 *We thank Frank Chaloupka for providing the data on state excise taxes. For helpful comments on earlier drafts, we thank Charles Clotfelter, Zvi Griliches, James Hamilton, Willard Manning, John Mullahy, David Salkever, Jody Sindelar. and participants in the NBER Higher Education Working Group and the Third Annual Health Economics Workshop. This research was supported in part by a grant from NIAAA.
Keywords
- Alcohol abuse
- Demand for schooling
- Excise taxes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health Policy
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health