The Relationship between Wages and Alcohol Dependence

Abstract

The relationship between an individual's wage and a measure of alcohol dependence is estimated using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Previous research on wages, hours worked, and employment, using this data, has focused on the relationship between these productivity measures and frequency and quantity of alcohol use variables. An emerging contention among some researchers is that while alcohol consumption measures may not affect labor productivity, measures such alcohol dependency that reflect problematic drinking do. A time-series cross-sectional model is used to estimate the relationship between hourly wages of individuals reported in two time periods and standard wage-determining characteristics as well as measures of current and past alcohol dependence constructed in the spirit of criteria used in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, third and fourth edition. Also, the relationship between wages and other indicators shown in the literature to be related to alcohol dependence or abuse, such as early onset of drinking, family history of alcoholism, and "binge" drinking is investigated.

Meeting Name

Joint Statistical Meeting, JSM 2004 (2004: Aug. 8-12, Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

Department(s)

Mathematics and Statistics

Second Department

Economics

Keywords and Phrases

NLSY; Alcohol Dependence; Longitudinal Model; Wages

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2004 American Statistical Association, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Aug 2004

Link to Full Text

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