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Author: Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo
Resulting in 6 citations.
1. Graf, Marlon
Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo
Midgette, Greg
Vardavas, Raffaele
Paddock, Susan
Assessing the Effects of Alcohol Policies on Consumption: Why the Measurement of Consumption Is Important
Presented: Washington DC, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Fall Research Conference, November 2016
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Alcohol Use; Legislation; Taxes

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

In this paper we reconsider the effect of a particular policy (alcohol taxation) and assess the extent to which alcohol taxation differentially influences various margins of use and patterns of consumption. We first conduct a comprehensive literature review and demonstrate that there are very few studies that comprehensively considered this question. Those limited studies that have, do so find that even in the case of alcohol taxation there are differential impacts depending on which margin of use is considered: number of days drinking in the past 30 days, average number of drinks per drinking day, and total ethanol consumed. The studies show considerable variation in both the magnitude and directionality of effects for alcohol taxes on consumption, depending on the particular measure of alcohol use studied, but the studies do not directly speak to the extent to which low dose consumption is additionally reduced when taxes go up. We next turn to our own analysis of the 1997-2012 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1997 Cohort) and consider the impact of recent changes in the tax on beer on consumption of young adults across a variety of margins of use. Our findings suggest that total alcohol consumed among adolescents and young adults is negatively related to changes in price, but the change in consumption is driven in large part by days of drinking rather than some combination of quantity per occasion and number of occasions. This may suggest drinkers would prefer to drink to some level of intoxication each time they drink rather than drink more frequently at lower levels.
Bibliography Citation
Graf, Marlon, Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, Greg Midgette, Raffaele Vardavas and Susan Paddock. "Assessing the Effects of Alcohol Policies on Consumption: Why the Measurement of Consumption Is Important." Presented: Washington DC, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Fall Research Conference, November 2016.
2. Mehay, Stephen L.
Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo
Effectiveness of Workplace Drug Prevention Policies: Does 'Zero Tolerance' Work?
NBER Working Paper No. 7383, National Bureau of Economic Research, October 1999.
Also: http://papers.nber.org/papers/w7383.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Keyword(s): Drug Use; Military Service; Punishment, Criminal; Substance Use

Workplace drug testing programs are becoming increasingly more common although there is little research demonstrating that they have any effect on drug use by employees. This paper analyzes the deterrence effect of a particularly aggressive workplace drug-testing policy implemented by the military in 1981. The military's policy incorporates random drug testing of current employees and zero tolerance. Using data from various years of the Department of Defense's Worldwide Survey of Health Related Behaviors and the NHSDA, we find illicit drug prevalence rates among military personnel are significantly lower than civilian rates in years after the implementation of the program but not before, suggesting a sizeable deterrence effect. These basic findings are replicated with data from the NLSY. The NLSY are also used to explore sensitivity of the deterrence effect to the probability of detection and severity of punishment, which varied across military branches during the first few years of the program's implementation.
Bibliography Citation
Mehay, Stephen L. and Rosalie Liccardo Pacula. "Effectiveness of Workplace Drug Prevention Policies: Does 'Zero Tolerance' Work?" NBER Working Paper No. 7383, National Bureau of Economic Research, October 1999.
3. Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo
Adolescent Alcohol and Marijuana Consumption: Is there Really a Gateway Effect?
NBER Working Paper No. 6348, National Bureau of Economic Research, January, 1997.
Also: http://nber.nber.org/papers/W6348
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Keyword(s): Alcohol Use; Cigarette Use (see Smoking); Drug Use; Heterogeneity; Modeling; Substance Use

This research analyzes the contemporaneous and intertemporal relationship between the demands for alcohol and marijuana by youths and young adults. A general theory of multi-commodity habit formation is developed and tested using data from the 1983-1984 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. An Adjusted Tobit specification is employed for estimating the empirical model. Habit persistence is distinguished from unobserved heterogeneity through a reduced form instrumental variable technique. The results show that higher beer prices significantly reduce the demand for both alcohol and marijuana, indicating a contemporaneous complementarity between these two substances even after controlling for commodity-specific habit formation. Further, prior use of alcohol and cigarettes significantly increases the likelihood of currently using marijuana, providing evidence in support of the gateway hypothesis. Full-text available on-line:http://nber.nber.org/papers/W6348
Bibliography Citation
Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo. "Adolescent Alcohol and Marijuana Consumption: Is there Really a Gateway Effect?" NBER Working Paper No. 6348, National Bureau of Economic Research, January, 1997.
4. Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo
Does Increasing the Beer Tax Reduce Marijuana Consumption?
Journal of Health Economics 17,5 (October 1998): 557-585.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629697000398
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Alcohol Use; Economics, Demographic; Modeling; Substance Use; Taxes

Previous studies suggest that alcohol and marijuana are economic substitutes, so recent policies restricting the availability of alcohol have led to an increase in the amount of marijuana consumed. Using micro-level data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to estimate individual demand equations for alcohol and marijuana, a study finds that alcohol and marijuana are economic complements, not substitutes. Further, the study finds that increases in the federal tax on beer will generate a larger reduction in the unconditional demand for marijuana than for alcohol in percentage terms.
Bibliography Citation
Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo. "Does Increasing the Beer Tax Reduce Marijuana Consumption?" Journal of Health Economics 17,5 (October 1998): 557-585.
5. Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo
Women and Substance Use: Are Women Less Susceptible to Addiction?
American Economic Review 87,2 (May 1997): 454-459.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2950967
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Economic Association
Keyword(s): Addiction; Gender Differences; Substance Use; Women's Studies

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

A study examines the intertemporal demands for alcohol and marijuana of men and women using panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to see if women are less susceptible to addition than men after accounting for possible multi-commodity habit formation. Results from reduced-form demand equations reveal that, although both men and women exhibit signs of multi-commodity habit formation, the cross-drug effects significantly influence quantity consumed for women only. Photocopy available from ABI/INFORM.
Bibliography Citation
Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo. "Women and Substance Use: Are Women Less Susceptible to Addiction?" American Economic Review 87,2 (May 1997): 454-459.
6. Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo
Powell, David
Heaton, Paul
Sevigny, Eric L.
Assessing the Effects of Medical Marijuana Laws on Marijuana Use: The Devil is in the Details
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 34,1 (Winter 2015): 7-31.
Also: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pam.21804/abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Drug Use; Geocoded Data; Legislation; Modeling, Fixed Effects

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

This paper sheds light on previous inconsistencies identified in the literature regarding the relationship between medical marijuana laws (MMLs) and recreational marijuana use by closely examining the importance of policy dimensions (registration requirements, home cultivation, dispensaries) and the timing of when particular policy dimensions are enacted. Using data from our own legal analysis of state MMLs, we evaluate which features are associated with adult and youth recreational and heavy use by linking these policy variables to data from the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) and National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97). We employ differences-in-differences techniques, controlling for state and year fixed effects, allowing us to exploit within-state policy changes. We find that while simple dichotomous indicators of MML laws are not positively associated with marijuana use or abuse, such measures hide the positive influence legal dispensaries have on adult and youth use, particularly heavy use. Sensitivity analyses that help address issues of policy endogeneity and actual implementation of dispensaries support our main conclusion that not all MML laws are the same. Dimensions of these policies, in particular legal protection of dispensaries, can lead to greater recreational marijuana use and abuse among adults and those under the legal age of 21 relative to MMLs without this supply source.
Bibliography Citation
Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo, David Powell, Paul Heaton and Eric L. Sevigny. "Assessing the Effects of Medical Marijuana Laws on Marijuana Use: The Devil is in the Details." Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 34,1 (Winter 2015): 7-31.