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Author: Keng, Shao-Hsun
Resulting in 3 citations.
1. Keng, Shao-Hsun
Demand for Health, Alcohol Abuse, and Labor Market Outcomes: A Longitudinal Study
Ph.D. Dissertation, Iowa State University, 1998
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Addiction; Alcohol Use; Drug Use; Labor Market Outcomes; Labor Supply; Simultaneity; Taxes

Becker and Murphy (1988) presented a rational addiction theory to rationalize the behavior of addiction. This dissertation extends rational addiction theory to examine the hypothesis of rational addiction and the long-term impact of addiction on labor productivity and labor supply. The theoretical model explicitly considers investment in health, drug consumption, and labor supply as joint decision variables, and treats wage as the outcome of these decisions. A simultaneous framework is empirically estimated to test the forward-looking hypothesis and the government policies are evaluated by simulation. The data set is the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Cohort (1979-1994). The results show that there is a trade off between the demand for health and the occasions of binge drinking. Youths reduce their occasions of binge drinking when they increase the demand for health, and vice versa. The finding supports the forward-looking hypothesis and that heavy drinking is addictive. Furthermore, we found a statistically weak effect of the alcohol price on the demand for binge drinking, and the long run alcohol price elasticity of the probability of heavy drinking, binge drinking, and no binge drinking are relatively small, -0.24, 0.03, and 0.21, respectively. The short run price elasticities are − 0.09, 0.01, and 0.08, respectively. The results suggest that the demand for binge drinking is not price responsive in the short run or long run. Continued binge drinking results in lower wage and health profiles, whereas it does not have significant impact on hours worked. Policy simulations show that increasing alcohol price by 100% decreases the occasions of binge drinking by only 5%, but raising the minimum legal drinking age one year reduces the occasions of binge drinking among underage youths by about 5%. The effect of increasing the alcohol price and the minimum drinking age on health status, hours worked, and log wage are positive, however, their magnitudes are sm all. Our results suggest that policy makers should focuses on affecting the age at which young people start drinking and taxing alcohol is a relatively inefficient policy for achieving this.
Bibliography Citation
Keng, Shao-Hsun. Demand for Health, Alcohol Abuse, and Labor Market Outcomes: A Longitudinal Study. Ph.D. Dissertation, Iowa State University, 1998.
2. Keng, Shao-Hsun
Huffman, Wallace Edgar
Binge Drinking and Labor Market Success: A Longitudinal Study on Young People
Journal of Population Economics 20,1 (January 2007): 35-54.
Also: http://www.springerlink.com/content/v044557798238035/
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Springer
Keyword(s): Addiction; Alcohol Use; Income; Labor Market Outcomes

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This paper presents a two-equation model of joint outcomes on an individual's decision to binge-drink and on his/her annual labor market earnings. The primary data source is the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979–1994. We show that binge-drinking behavior is quite alcohol-price responsive and is a rational addiction. A new result is that an individual's decision to binge-drink has a statistically significant negative effect on his/her earnings. Furthermore, we conducted simulations of the short-run and long-run impacts of increasing the alcohol price. They showed that that the tendency for an individual to binge-drink heavily is reduced significantly, and the reduction is greater in the long- than short-run simulation. Also, an individual's annual earnings were increased. However, in the structural model, an individual's earnings have no significant effect on his/her tendency to engage in binge drinking. Our results contradict earlier findings from cross-sectional evidence that showed increased alcohol consumption raised an individual's earnings or wages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Bibliography Citation
Keng, Shao-Hsun and Wallace Edgar Huffman. "Binge Drinking and Labor Market Success: A Longitudinal Study on Young People." Journal of Population Economics 20,1 (January 2007): 35-54.
3. Keng, Shao-Hsun
Huffman, Wallace Edgar
Binge Drinking and Labor Market Success: A Longitudinal Study on Young People
Journal of Population Economics 23,1 (January 2010): 303-322.
Also: http://www.springerlink.com/content/pr751727668073n6/
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Springer
Keyword(s): Addiction; Alcohol Use; Earnings; Income; Labor Market Outcomes

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

[Editor's note: This paper appears to have been published twice by the Journal of Population Economics. See also, Journal of Population Economics, 20,1 (January 2007): 35-54, that appears in this bibliography.]

This paper presents a two-equation model of joint outcomes on an individual's decision to binge drink and on his/her annual labor market earnings. The primary data source is the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), 1979-1994. We show that binge drinking behavior is quite alcohol-price responsive and is a rational addiction. A new result is that an individual's decision to binge drink has a statistically significant negative effect on his/her earnings. Furthermore, we conducted simulations of the short-run and long-run impacts of increasing the alcohol price. They showed that the tendency for an individual to binge drink heavily is reduced significantly, and the reduction is greater in the long-run than short-run simulation. Also, an individual's annual earnings were increased. However, in the structural model, an individual's earnings have no significant effect on his/her tendency to engage in binge drinking. Our results contradict earlier findings from cross-section evidence that showed increased alcohol consumption raised an individual's earnings or wages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bibliography Citation
Keng, Shao-Hsun and Wallace Edgar Huffman. "Binge Drinking and Labor Market Success: A Longitudinal Study on Young People." Journal of Population Economics 23,1 (January 2010): 303-322.