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Fraternity membership and binge drinking

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  • DeSimone, Jeff

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between membership in social fraternities and sororities and binge drinking among 18-24 year old full-time four-year college students who participated in the 1995 National College Health Risk Behavior Survey. To deal with unobserved heterogeneity in binge drinking incidence and frequency regressions, I enter as explanatory variables various measures of situational and overall alcohol use. When these are added, the fraternity membership coefficient is substantially reduced in size, but remains large and highly significant. This suggests that fraternity membership increases binge drinking. If not, it identifies a very specific mechanism underlying the decision to join a fraternity: members drink more intensely than non-members even while doing so in similar frequencies and situations and for similar lengths of time. Particularly notable is that behavior by underage students appears to drive the relationship.
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  • DeSimone, Jeff, 2007. "Fraternity membership and binge drinking," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 950-967, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:26:y:2007:i:5:p:950-967
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    Cited by:

    1. JEFF DeSIMONE, 2009. "Fraternity Membership And Drinking Behavior," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 47(2), pages 337-350, April.
    2. Paolo Buonanno & Paolo Vanin, 2013. "Bowling alone, drinking together," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 1635-1672, June.
    3. Lechner, Michael & Fricke, Hans & Steinmayr, Andreas, 2017. "The Effect of Physical Activity on Student Performance in College: An Experimental Evaluation," CEPR Discussion Papers 12052, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Lindo, Jason M. & Swensen, Isaac D. & Waddell, Glen R., 2013. "Alcohol and student performance: Estimating the effect of legal access," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 22-32.
    5. Gawain Heckley & Martin Nordin & Ulf‐G. Gerdtham, 2022. "The health returns of attending university for the marginally eligible student," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(5), pages 877-903, May.
    6. L. Corazzini & A. Filippin & P. Vanin, 2014. "Economic Behavior under Alcohol Influence: An Experiment on Time, Risk, and Social Preferences," Working Papers wp944, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    7. Tom Coupé & W. Robert Reed, 2021. "Do Negative Replications Affect Citations?," Working Papers in Economics 21/14, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    8. Jack Mara & Lewis Davis & Stephen Schmidt, 2018. "Social Animal House: The Economic And Academic Consequences Of Fraternity Membership," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 36(2), pages 263-276, April.
    9. Dustin R. White & Benjamin W. Cowan & Jadrian J. Wooten, 2019. "March Madness: Ncaa Tournament Participation And College Alcohol Use," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(3), pages 449-461, July.
    10. Averett, Susan L. & Terrizzi, Sabrina & Wang, Yang, 2013. "The Effect of Sorority Membership on Eating Disorders and Body Mass Index," IZA Discussion Papers 7512, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. William E. Even & Austin C. Smith, 2022. "Greek Life, Academics, and Earnings," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(3), pages 998-1032.
    12. Fricke, Hans & Lechner, Michael & Steinmayr, Andreas, 2018. "The effects of incentives to exercise on student performance in college," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 14-39.
    13. Routon, P. Wesley & Walker, Jay K., 2014. "The impact of Greek organization membership on collegiate outcomes: Evidence from a National Survey," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 63-70.
    14. Jeffrey S. DeSimone, 2010. "Fraternity Membership & Frequent Drinking," NBER Working Papers 16291, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Tom Coupé & W. Robert Reed, 2023. "Do Replications Make a Difference?," Working Papers in Economics 23/10, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    16. Ha, Joung Yeob & Smith, Austin C., 2019. "Legal access to alcohol and academic performance: Who is affected?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 19-22.
    17. Susan Averett & Sabrina Terrizzi & Yang Wang, 2017. "The Effect of Sorority Membership on Eating Disorders, Body Weight, and Disordered‐Eating Behaviors," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(7), pages 875-891, July.
    18. Andrew W. Nutting, 2020. "Height and Adult Alcohol Consumption," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 48(1), pages 115-129, March.
    19. Giuseppe Di Vita & Gianluca Foresta & Carla Zarb?, 2013. "Il consumo giovanile di bevande alcoliche: un?indagine su alcuni modelli comportamentali," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 15(1), pages 203-232.
    20. Jason Fletcher, 2012. "Peer influences on adolescent alcohol consumption: evidence using an instrumental variables/fixed effect approach," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(4), pages 1265-1286, October.
    21. Luca Corazzini & Antonio Filippin & Paolo Vanin, 2015. "Economic Behavior under the Influence of Alcohol: An Experiment on Time Preferences, Risk-Taking, and Altruism," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-25, April.

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    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior

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