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Title: Effects of Adolescent Substance Use on Educational Attainment, Adult Substance Use, and the Adult Wage Rate
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Chatterji, Pinka
Effects of Adolescent Substance Use on Educational Attainment, Adult Substance Use, and the Adult Wage Rate
Ph.D. Dissertation, The Johns Hopkins University, 1998
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Alcohol Use; Drug Use; Educational Attainment; Endogeneity; Health Factors; Modeling, Multilevel; Modeling, Probit; Substance Use; Variables, Instrumental; Wages, Adult

The objective of the dissertation is to use three samples from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to explore the causal relationship between adolescent use of alcohol and illicit drugs and the following subsequent outcomes: (1) educational attainment; (2) adult binge drinking, marijuana use and cocaine use; and (3) the adult hourly wage. A recursive, four-equation empirical model is developed and estimated using a variety of methods to account for possible endogeneity problems in the substance use measures. The relationship between adolescent substance use and educational attainment is estimated using benchmark ordinary least squares models, two stage instrumental variables methods, bivariate probits, and sibling difference models. The adult substance use models are estimated using benchmark probits, benchmark tobits, and two stage instrumental variables methods involving limited dependent variables. Finally, the wage equation is estimated using benchmark log-linear models and two stage instrumental variable Heckman models. These results indicate that the prevention of adolescent drug use may prevent a range of important, future economic costs associated with negative adult outcomes. Benchmark results indicate that adolescent substance use has a negative impact on educational attainment and a positive effect on adult substance use. After accounting for endogeneity, adolescent substance use has a strong, positive effect on some forms of adult substance use, and adult binge drinking has a significant, negative impact on wages. Surprisingly, when endogeneity is addressed, adolescent substance use no longer has a consistent, negative effect on schooling. All the results provide evidence that parental alcoholism has a strong, positive effect on adolescent substance use and a strong, negative effect on educational attainment. The dissertation findings indicate that substance use prevention programs may prevent future economic costs. Furthermore, the importance of parental alcoholism in the dissertation results supports the idea that substance abuse preventive interventions should be aimed at families in addition to individual adolescents.
Bibliography Citation
Chatterji, Pinka. Effects of Adolescent Substance Use on Educational Attainment, Adult Substance Use, and the Adult Wage Rate. Ph.D. Dissertation, The Johns Hopkins University, 1998.