Employment and Income Effects Related to Drinking with Controls for Drug Abuse and Smoking: Analysis Using the NESARC Database
- Presenter:
Chair: Edward Norton; Discussant: Gary Zarkin Mon June 5, 2006 13:45-15:15 Room 226
Authors. Allen C. Goodman (allen.goodman@wayne.edu) and Janet R. Hankin (janet.hankin@wayne.edu), Wayne State University
Title: Employment and Income Effects Related to Drinking with Controls for Drug Abuse and Smoking: Analysis Using the NESARC Database
Rationale: A considerable literature has examined impacts of drinking on employment and income, but existing analyses have generally used databases that do not reflect the general population. In addition, existing analyses reflect data collected no later than the early to mid 1990s. This study seeks to update analyses with a new database that addresses both issues, with methods that reflect selection effects.
Objectives: The objective is to examine both direct and indirect impacts of alcohol consumption on labor force participation and income, with controls for drug abuse and smoking.
Methods: Multiple regression and maximum likelihood methods are used to estimate impacts of alcohol consumption on labor force participation and income, with controls for drug abuse and smoking. The study uses the recently collected National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), designed to be the primary source for information and data on the U.S. population for alcohol and drug use. The NESARC provides multi-dimensional information on alcoholism, drug abuse, and cigarette smoking, as well as excellent individual and labor market information.
Results: Separate analyses by gender show that alcohol use significantly impacts the choice between part-time and full-time employment. Heavy drinkers are more likely to be unemployed or part-time workers compared to lighter drinkers or abstainers. In contrast, alcohol use has an insignificant impact on income conditional on employment. Because better health, education, and part-time v. full-time status are related to higher annual income, increased drinking indirectly lowers annual income by influencing these factors, but it has little direct impact on income outside of these indirect effects.
Conclusions: The labor force impacts of alcohol and substance abuse are complex. The alcohol impacts are most pronounced with respect to labor force participation, and full- v. part-time employment. Drug use has its major impact on men with respect to labor force participation (less likely to be full-time) and health (worse health). Women who use drugs are also less likely to work full-time and will have worse health. Current smoking has negligible effects on labor force status, but it is inversely related to health and to education, and thus impacts income indirectly in a negative manner. It has modest direct impacts on part-time worker incomes, but significantly negative direct impacts on income for both men and women.
