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Title: Does College Teach Young Men to Smoke Pot? [Revised October 2006]
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Chen, Stacey H. |
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Does College Teach Young Men to Smoke Pot? [Revised October 2006] Presented: Cambridge, Massachusetts, Society of Labor Economists, Annual Meetings, May 5-6, 2006 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: National Opinion Research Center - NORC Keyword(s): Behavior; College Education; College Enrollment; Drug Use; Family Background and Culture Many studies have shown a link between education and health, though it is not clear whether the link is causal. This paper studies the causal effect of college education on marijuana use, one of the most widely discussed health-related behaviors of youths. On one hand, college may reduce drug use by changing preferences or by increasing the potential value of investments in health (e.g., as suggested by Grossman 1976; Fuchs 1982; Lleras-Muney 2005). On the other hand, marijuana is widely available on college campuses. Use of the drug may, therefore, increase as a consequence of exposure to college environment (a possibility suggested by Kremer and Levy 2003; Laibson 2001). Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey for Youth (NLSY), I estimate the causal link between college attendance and marijuana use with an instrumental-variables (IV) strategy. The instrumental variable is college cost in respondents' county of residence, conditional on a variety of family background variables, prior use of drugs, and state fixed effects. My results do not support the widely-held notion that education reduces drug use. |
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Bibliography Citation
Chen, Stacey H. "Does College Teach Young Men to Smoke Pot? [Revised October 2006]." Presented: Cambridge, Massachusetts, Society of Labor Economists, Annual Meetings, May 5-6, 2006. |