IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wop/wispod/1092-96.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The impact of alcohol and drug use on employment: A labor market study using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

Author

Listed:
  • R. R. Bryant
  • A. Jayawardhana
  • V. A. Samaranayake
  • A. Wilhite

Abstract

The purpose of this study was, first, to estimate of the impact of alcohol and drug use on the employment status of men and women, and second, to examine whether a history of past use, as opposed to current use, adversely affects the propensity to be employed. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth we conducted a cross-sectional and a longitudinal analysis with logistic regression estimation to model the probability that a person was employed in 1992. In addition to usual regressors, interactions between substance use measures, between substance use measures and human capital variables, and between substance use measures and race dummies were included in the equation. The longitudinal analysis utilized a conditional likelihood method based on employment data in 1992 and 1988 and included the difference between 1992 regressors and their 1988 counterparts. A comparison was made between the prediction accuracy of the logit choice model, linear discriminant analysis, k-nearest neighbor analysis, and three modern classification methods that are used extensively in the area of machine learning. Results showed that the logit model performs relatively well in classifying individuals into employed and unemployed categories based on individual attributes. Results of the cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis were mixed, but not inconsistent with our prior expectations that use of alcohol or drug has a negative impact on a person's propensity to be employed. Cross-sectional results show a clear negative impact of past substance use on a person's employment probability among all demographic groups examined (by gender: all persons, blacks, Hispanics, families with income below the poverty line, and high users of alcohol or drugs). However, when current and past use are considered together, only women seem to experience negative impacts. The results of the longitudinal analysis are less clear, although they do indicate that negative impacts are associated with the interaction between substance use measures and human capital variables. Limitations of the study are pointed out and suggestions are made for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • R. R. Bryant & A. Jayawardhana & V. A. Samaranayake & A. Wilhite, "undated". "The impact of alcohol and drug use on employment: A labor market study using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1092-96, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    • Handle: RePEc:wop:wispod:1092-96
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/dps/pdfs/dp109296.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert Kaestner, 1994. "The Effect of Illicit Drug Use on the Labor Supply of Young Adults," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 29(1), pages 126-155.
    2. Andrew M. Gill & Robert J. Michaels, 1992. "Does Drug Use Lower Wages?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 45(3), pages 419-434, April.
    3. Charles A. Register & Donald R. Williams, 1992. "Labor Market Effects of Marijuana and Cocaine Use among Young Men," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 45(3), pages 435-448, April.
    4. Mullahy, John & Sindelar, Jody L, 1993. "Alcoholism, Work, and Income," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(3), pages 494-520, July.
    5. Robert Kaestner, 1994. "New Estimates of the Effect of Marijuana and Cocaine Use on Wages," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 47(3), pages 454-470, April.
    6. Kaestner, Robert, 1991. "The Effect of Illicit Drug Use on the Wages of Young Adults," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(4), pages 381-412, October.
    7. Moffitt, Robert, 1982. "The Tobit Model, Hours of Work and Institutional Constraints," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 64(3), pages 510-515, August.
    8. Zabel, Jeffrey E, 1993. "The Relationship between Hours of Work and Labor Force Participation in Four Models of Labor Supply Behavior," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(2), pages 387-416, April.
    9. Mullahy, John & Sindelar, Jody L, 1991. "Gender Differences in Labor Market Effects of Alcoholism," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 161-165, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ziggy MacDonald, 2004. "What Price Drug Use? The Contribution of Economics to an Evidence‐Based Drugs Policy," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(2), pages 113-152, April.
    2. Ziggy MacDonald & Michael Shields, "undated". "The Impact of Alcohol Use on Occupational Attainment and Wages," Discussion Papers in Public Sector Economics 98/8, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    3. Michael T. French & Gary A. Zarkin & Laura J. Dunlap, 1998. "Illicit Drug Use, Absenteeism, And Earnings At Six U.S. Worksites," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 16(3), pages 334-346, July.
    4. Michael T. French & M. Christopher Roebuck & Pierre Kébreau Alexandre, 2001. "Illicit Drug Use, Employment, and Labor Force Participation," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 68(2), pages 349-368, October.
    5. Ziggy MacDonald & Stephen Pudney, 2001. "Illicit drug use and labour market achievement: evidence from the UK," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(13), pages 1655-1668.
    6. Robert Kaestner, 1995. "The Effects of Cocaine and Marijuana Use on Marriage and Marital Stability," NBER Working Papers 5038, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Z. MacDonald & S. Pudney, 2000. "Analysing drug abuse with British Crime Survey data: modelling and questionnaire design issues," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 49(1), pages 95-117.
    8. Jan C. Ours & Jenny Williams, 2015. "Cannabis Use And Its Effects On Health, Education And Labor Market Success," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 993-1010, December.
    9. Williams, Jenny & van Ours, Jan C., 2017. "Early Cannabis Use and School to Work Transition of Young Men," IZA Discussion Papers 10488, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Mezza, Alvaro & Buchinsky, Moshe, 2021. "Illegal drugs, education, and labor market outcomes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 223(2), pages 454-484.
    11. Charles Register & Donald Williams & Paul Grimes, 2001. "Adolescent Drug Use and Educational Attainment," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 1-18.
    12. Robert Kaestner, 1998. "Drug use and AFDC participation: Is there a connection?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(3), pages 495-520.
    13. Michael T. French & Ioana Popovici, 2011. "That instrument is lousy! In search of agreement when using instrumental variables estimation in substance use research," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(2), pages 127-146, February.
    14. Robert Kaestner, 1999. "Does Drug Use Cause Poverty?," NBER Chapters, in: The Economic Analysis of Substance Use and Abuse: An Integration of Econometric and Behavioral Economic Research, pages 327-368, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Jenny Williams & Christopher Skeels, 2006. "The Impact of Cannabis Use on Health," De Economist, Springer, vol. 154(4), pages 517-546, December.
    16. MacDonald, Ziggy & Pudney, Stephen, 2000. "Illicit drug use, unemployment, and occupational attainment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 1089-1115, November.
    17. Jeanne S. Ringel & Phyllis L. Ellickson & Rebecca L. Collins, 2006. "The Relationship Between High School Marijuana Use And Annual Earnings Among Young Adult Males," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 24(1), pages 52-63, January.
    18. Thomas C. Buchmueller & Samuel H. Zuvekas, 1998. "Drug use, drug abuse, and labour market outcomes," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 7(3), pages 229-245, May.
    19. Ziggy MacDonald & Stephen Pudney, 2000. "The Wages of Sin? Illegal Drug Use and the Labour Market," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 14(4), pages 657-673, December.
    20. Molinari, Francesca, 2010. "Missing Treatments," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 28(1), pages 82-95.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wop:wispod:1092-96. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Thomas Krichel (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iruwius.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.