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Author: Cowan, Benjamin W.

Resulting in 5 citations.

1.	Cowan, Benjamin W.
1.	Forward-Thinking Teens: The Effects of College Costs on Adolescent Risky Behavior Economics of Education Review 30,5 (October 2011): 813-825. Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775711000616 Cohort(s): NLSY97 Publisher: Elsevier Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Alcohol Use; College Cost; Drug Use; Educational Aspirations/Expectations; Risk-Taking; Sexual Activity This paper analyzes the effect of college costs on teenagers’ engagement in risky behaviors before they are old enough to attend college. Individuals with brighter prospects for future schooling attainment may engage in less drug and alcohol use and risky sexual activity because they have more to lose if such behaviors have harmful effects in their lives. If teens correctly predict that higher college costs make future college enrollment less likely, then adolescents facing different expected costs may choose different levels of risky behavior. I find that lower college costs in teenagers’ states of residence raise their subjective expectations regarding college attendance and deter teenage substance use and sexual partnership. Specifically, a $1,000 reduction in tuition and fees at 2-year colleges in a youth's state of residence (roughly a 50% difference at the mean) is associated with a decline in the number of sexual partners the youth had in the past year (by 26%), the number of days in the past month the youth smoked (by 14%), and the number of days in the past month the youth used marijuana (by 23%). These findings suggest that the often-studied correlation between schooling and health habits emerges in adolescence because teenagers with brighter college prospects curb their risky behavior in accordance with their expectations. The results also imply that policies that improve teenagers’ educational prospects may be effective tools for reducing youthful involvement in such behaviors.
	Bibliography Citation Cowan, Benjamin W. "Forward-Thinking Teens: The Effects of College Costs on Adolescent Risky Behavior." Economics of Education Review 30,5 (October 2011): 813-825.

2.	Cowan, Benjamin W.
2.	Sources of Bias in Teenagers' College Expectations Social Science Quarterly 99,1 (March 2018): 136-153. Also: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ssqu.12354/abstract Cohort(s): NLSY97 Publisher: Wiley Online Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); College Enrollment; Educational Outcomes; Expectations/Intentions Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This paper compares individuals' college expectations as teenagers with their subsequent college outcomes using data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97). I analyze how a rich set of youth characteristics correlate with the discrepancy between expectations and realizations.
	Bibliography Citation Cowan, Benjamin W. "Sources of Bias in Teenagers' College Expectations." Social Science Quarterly 99,1 (March 2018): 136-153.

3.	Cowan, Benjamin W.
3.	Testing for Educational Credit Constraints Using Heterogeneity in Individual Time Preferences Journal of Labor Economics 34,2 (April 2016): 363-402. Also: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/683644 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Keyword(s): College Enrollment; Credit/Credit Constraint; Disadvantaged, Economically; Educational Attainment; Human Capital; Racial Differences; Time Preference I develop a model in which individual time discount rates have a larger effect on human capital accumulation when credit constraints are binding. Impatient individuals obtain less schooling when borrowing constraints limit the ability to finance consumption during school. Using data from the NLSY79, I show that self-reported measures of time preferences have a significantly higher effect on the college attendance decisions of blacks than those of whites and the decisions of low-income youths than those of high-income youths. These results provide new evidence that members of disadvantaged groups obtain lower levels of schooling because they are credit constrained.
	Bibliography Citation Cowan, Benjamin W. "Testing for Educational Credit Constraints Using Heterogeneity in Individual Time Preferences." Journal of Labor Economics 34,2 (April 2016): 363-402.

4.	Cowan, Benjamin W. Schwab, Benjamin
4.	Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance and the Gender Wage Gap Journal of Health Economics 45 (January 2016): 103-114. Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629615001095 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Elsevier Keyword(s): Gender Differences; Health Care; Insurance, Health; Wage Gap During prime working years, women have higher expected healthcare expenses than men. However, employees' insurance rates are not gender-rated in the employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) market. Thus, women may experience lower wages in equilibrium from employers who offer health insurance to their employees. We show that female employees suffer a larger wage gap relative to men when they hold ESI: our results suggest this accounts for roughly 10% of the overall gender wage gap. For a full-time worker, this pay gap due to ESI is on the order of the expected difference in healthcare expenses between women and men.
	Bibliography Citation Cowan, Benjamin W. and Benjamin Schwab. "Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance and the Gender Wage Gap." Journal of Health Economics 45 (January 2016): 103-114.

5.	Cowan, Benjamin W. Schwab, Benjamin
5.	The Incidence of the Healthcare Costs of Smoking Journal of Health Economics 30,5 (September 2011): 1094-1102. Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629611000828 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Elsevier Keyword(s): Health Care; Insurance, Health; Obesity; Smoking (see Cigarette Use); Wage Gap; Wage Penalty/Career Penalty Smokers earn less than non-smokers, but much is still unknown about the source(s) of the smoker's wage gap. We build on the work of Bhattacharya and Bundorf (2009), who provide evidence that obese workers receive lower wages on account of their higher expected healthcare costs. Similarly, we find that smokers who hold employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) receive significantly lower wages than their non-smoking peers, while smokers who are not insured through their employer endure no such wage penalty. Our results have two implications: first, the incidence of smokers' elevated medical costs appears to be borne by smokers themselves in the form of lower wages. Second, differences in healthcare costs between smokers and non-smokers are a significant source of the smoker's wage gap.
	Bibliography Citation Cowan, Benjamin W. and Benjamin Schwab. "The Incidence of the Healthcare Costs of Smoking." Journal of Health Economics 30,5 (September 2011): 1094-1102.

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