Drinking under communism: Why do alcohol consumption habits in Eastern Europe differ from the west in the long-run?

This paper looks into possible explanations for differences between Eastern and Western Europe alcohol consumption behaviour even twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet regime. It suggests these differences can be viewed as an expression of cultural habits. We explore different ways of defining exposure to the communist regime: using number of years a person spent under the regime and also a dummy indicator for spending formative years (18–25) in it. We find both to be strong factors in explaining alcohol consumption behaviour. We consider differences in frequency of alcohol consumption and binge drinking using European Health Interview Survey (EHIS) micro data from Eurostat. Estimations are run with ordered probit model for men and women separately. Evidence suggests a statistically significant effect of experiencing communist regimes, which is larger for women's alcohol consumption frequency than for men's. It is also the most important factor in explaining more frequent male binge drinking. These effects hold after controlling for socio-economic, country level and time characteristics. This suggests the attitudes towards alcohol consumption could be more permissive in the Eastern Bloc countries.     

The timing of first marriage and subsequent life outcomes: Evidence from a natural experiment

We study the consequences of later marriage on subsequent life outcomes. China’s family planning policies in the early 1970s – before the One-Child Policy – regulated not only childbirth but also marriage. The recommended minimum marriage age of 25 years for men and 23 years for women was effectively relaxed when the government formally introduced the One-Child Policy and put greater emphasis on directly controlling fertility rather than marriage. Subsequently, we find that the marriage age, which had been increasing steadily since 1970, suddenly started to decline in the early 1980s. This policy shift provides us with an opportunity to apply a regression probability jump and kink design for the purpose of identification. Using data from the 2000 census, we establish that later-married men have fewer children and that later-married women are more likely to participate in the labor market. We find no consistent evidence that later marriage improves education, probably because most Chinese people marry after completing their education.     

Alcohol consumption,smoking and wages

The good health of an individual is a combination of uncontrollable factors that includes genetics and random events and controllable factors through the regulation of activities such as smoking and drinking. Since the work of Grossman in the 1970s, a significant relationship between health and earnings has been predicted. In this present paper the 1995 Australian National Health Survey is used to examine simultaneously the effects of drinking and smoking on wages. To model the interaction of smoking with alcohol consumption separate models are fitted for smokers and nonsmokers. These models account for potential selectivity bias resulting from the decision to smoke, and endogeneity arising from a potential causal relationship between earnings and alcohol consumption.     

ESTIMATING CAUSAL EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ACCESS AND USE ON A BROAD SET OF RISKY BEHAVIORS: REGRESSION DISCONTINUITY EVIDENCE

A growing body of evidence suggests large increases in criminal behavior and mortality coinciding with a young adult's 21st birthday, when alcohol consumption becomes legal. The policy implications from these findings have focused on the need to reduce drinking among young people, potentially by enforcing stricter alcohol controls. However, mortality and arrests are relatively infrequent outcomes and relatively less is known about the intermediate and more prevalent consequences of legal access to alcohol at age 21. This paper uses the Add Health data combined with a regression discontinuity approach to examine the effects of alcohol access on sexual behavior, drunk driving, violence, and other outcomes. The results suggest relatively large effects that appear concentrated in men. The sample also allows some suggestive policy implications on whether changing the minimum drinking age may reduce these consequences. (JEL I12, I18)     

The impact of recession on drinking and smoking behaviours in Canada

Using longitudinal data from the Canadian National Population Health Survey (1994-2009), this study examined the impact of macroeconomic conditions as measured by the provincial unemployment rate on individual alcohol drinking and smoking behaviour. After controlling for unobserved individual specific heterogeneity, the study found that for the overall sample, unemployment rate has a significant positive impact on weekly alcohol consumption as well as on the probability of being a binge drinker. The study further found that unemployment rate has a significant positive impact on the number of cigarettes smoked by the daily smokers. However, unemployment rate has no impact on the probability of being a smoker. The study further examined whether or not there is a gender difference in the impact of unemployment rate on drinking and smoking behaviour. The results suggest that the impact of unemployment rate on drinking and smoking behaviour is more pronounced for males than for females.     

Prenatal care and pregnancy outcome in Cebu, Philippines

This paper examines the direct and indirect effects of patterns of prenatal care usage on birth weight and gestational age for a randomly selected sample of 3,080 rural and urban women. We analyze indirect effects of prenatal care on intermediate maternal factors (nutritional, stress, smoking, and drinking), then the impacts of these factors along with prenatal care on pregnancy outcome. The simultaneous equations statistical approach corrects for endogeneity of prenatal care and the intermediate maternal factors. Results of simulations of the effects of changes in the number of prenatal visits on intermediate and health outcome factors have important policy implications.     

Building the Family Nest: Premarital Investments, Marriage Markets, and Spousal Allocations

We develop a transferable utility model of the household in which the marriage market is characterized by (negative or positive) assortative matching, and spousal allocations are determined by premarital investments. We demonstrate that all sharing rules along the assortative order support efficient outcomes both in terms of premarital investments and intra-household allocations. The efficiency of premarital choices and household allocations then enables us to show that, for each couple, the marriage market generates a unique and maritally sustainable sharing rule that is a function of the distribution of premarital endowments and the sex ratios in the market. According to our results, transfers among spouses occur on two margins: premarital investments and intra-marital spousal allocations. Asymmetries in the sex ratios in the marriage markets produce gender differences in premarital investments and consumption that are larger for individuals with small premarital endowments than those with larger endowments. A corollary of these findings is that, when men are in short supply in the marriage markets, women can invest more than men even when the returns to investment are lower or the costs are higher for women.     

The role of pregnancy health problems on maternal smoking behaviours

To explore the effects of pregnancy health problems (PHPs) on smoking behaviours during and after pregnancy (‘smoking-inducing’ effect), we estimate a two-period model that jointly determines prenatal and postnatal smoking decisions, taking into consideration the presence of PHPs. While PHPs are likely to reduce prenatal (except for heavy smokers) and postnatal smoking propensity, we still observe considerable postnatal relapse in the sample, which can be attributed to smoking addiction, as well as information asymmetries and maternal stress associated with PHPs. Thus, we advocate for smoking cessation policies and programmes throughout and beyond pregnancy to avoid potential intertemporal substitution between prenatal and postnatal cigarette consumption.     

INFLUENCES ON THE TIMING OF FIRST CHILDBEARING

This paper presents evidence that women from different population subgroups respond differently to economic and background influences when timing initial childbearing. Among all groups examined, age at first birth tends to increase as education levels increase, and married women with spouses present tend to be older than other women at first childbirth. Among whites, all economic influences considered–hourly pay rate, nonmarket income, and work during the year prior to childbearing–have a significant influence in deferring first childbirth, but family background does not. Among blacks, family background plays a significant role in determining age at first childbirth, but only one economic influence–the hourly pay rate–is significant. Blacks' response to family background is somewhat greater than their response to hourly pay rate. Race as a separate influence is significant among women age 20 years or under, but that influence disappears among older women. Because of their adverse economic consequences, adolescent pregnancies and unwed motherhood are of mounting concern. This study suggests that, contrary to popular belief, welfare programs do not foster early pregnancy nor do programs to reduce unemployment deter it. Educational achievement, however, serves as a deterrent to early pregnancy among all groups.     

A note on the effect of minimum drinking age laws on youth alcohol consumption

This study uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to investigate the effect of minimum drinking age laws (MDALs) on youth alcohol consumption. Two considerations motivated the analysis. First, results from previous studies provide conflicting evidence of the effect of MDALs on alcohol consumption. Second, all previous studies of the effects of MDALs on alcohol consumption have failed to control for unmeasured time-varying state effects. This study addresses this latter issue by using a difference-in-differences-in-differences (DDD) methodology. The results of this study were mixed. On the one hand, a preponderance of estimates of the effect of MDALs on alcohol consumption are negative, although many are not significantly different from zero. On the other hand, estimates of the effect of MDALs differ by gender and exhibit some variation across samples and methods. In the end, I believe the estimates presented in this article are not sufficient to draw a definitive conclusion and suggest the need for additional research.     

Addiction,social interactions and gender differences in cigarette consumption

This paper addresses the impact of addiction and social interactions on cigarette demand, controlling for demographic and socioeconomic factors. A Box–Cox double-hurdle model for the simultaneous decisions of how much to smoke and whether to quit smoking is estimated on individual data from the 2000 Italian “Health Status and Use of Health Services” survey. The model incorporates the fixed costs of quitting and allows for the analysis of the effects of addiction and social interactions on smoking participation and cigarette consumption. Estimation results show that the duration of the smoking habit, used as measure of addiction, significantly increases the level of cigarette consumption and lowers the probability of quitting. Social interactions significantly affect individual’s attitude toward smoking. Finally, gender differences are formally tested to verify whether male and female sub-samples can be pooled or should be separately analyzed. The hypothesis of equal consumption parameters is clearly rejected, suggesting the opportunity of distinguishing the consumption patterns of men and women.

Marriage and trust: some lessons from economics

This paper examines the role of marriage as an institution forproviding couples with the confidence to make long-term investmentsin their relationship. No-fault divorce has undermined the notionof marriage as a contract, thereby reducing the security offeredby marriage and promoting opportunism by men. This has weakenedthe bargaining power of wives, both within marriage and whendivorce occurs. Current legal reforms will improve the economicposition of all divorced wives, including those who are primarilyresponsible for the breakdown of their marriage. The latterfeature will encourage opportunism by women and make men lessprepared to invest in their marriage. The paper argues thatthe only way to achieve parity between men and women, and deteropportunism by either sex, is to return to fault-based divorce.Both divorce settlements and the custody of children shoulddepend on preceding marital conduct.     

Women's education and marriage decisions: Evidence from China

The faster increase in education among women compared with men has been underexplored. Thus, using Chinese data, we evaluate the impacts of a plausibly exogenous increase in educational attainment on women's marriage decisions. An extra year of education does not change women's decision to marry and leads to a brief delay of 0.12 years in their marriage age on average, which is much smaller than the delay among men. Although more educated women and men both have improved labour market outcomes, which may have increased their patience, men experience larger income growth than women do. Moreover, declining physical attractiveness at least partly explains why the delay is less than 1 year. Overall, the results are more reliable after addressing the endogeneity issue.     

The earnings effects of health and health-related activities: a panel data approach

We investigate the effects of health and health-related habits on earnings in China using panel data to control for unobserved heterogeneity related to individual traits and job characteristics. Health-related habits include smoking cigarettes, drinking tea, frequency of drinking alcohol and physical exercising. We find a significant and large impact of health status on earnings, controlling for schooling, experience and the unobserved individual heterogeneity and job heterogeneity. We also find that smoking has a strong negative effect on earnings net of health status, while the estimated effects of other health-related activities are statistically insignificant.     

Women's Employment in Japan and the Timing of Marriage and Childbirth

This paper uses Japanese panel data to examine empirically the effect of changes in labour market conditions and income in the timing of marriage, childbirth and employment. The main findings are that a high unemployment rate at the time of graduation tends to speed up the timing of marriage and childbirth, whereas an increase in the unemployment rate in the years after graduation delays the timing of marriage and childbirth. These results suggest that in Japan decisions are more likely to be based upon major changes such as those in employment opportunities than on fluctuations in the wage rate.
JEL Classification Numbers: J1, J2.     

Shedding “light” on marriage: The influence of skin shade on marriage for black females

The inter-racial marriage gap that opened in the past 50 years is generally attributed to a decline in the availability of young black marriageable men. We contend that the associated shortage of desirable men in the marriage market provides those black men who are sought after with the opportunity to attain a high status spouse, which has placed a premium on black women with lighter skin. We provide evidence, based on data drawn from the Multi City Study of Urban Inequality, consistent with this hypothesis. Our theoretical analysis of the marriage market reveals that marriage promotion policies to increase the desire to marry on the part of young black women will serve to exacerbate the importance attached to skin shade.     

Bowling alone, drinking together

This paper investigates to what extent youth alcohol consumption depends on consumption patterns by other household members and on social interactions outside the household. Exploiting the richness of the data, we explore the possibility of asymmetric social influences by gender and by age, the differences between use and abuse and among different types of alcohol consumption (beer, wine and spirits). Moreover, we control for contextual effects, such as variables related to neighbourhood and family background. We find that both the drinking intensity by other household members and a richer social life outside home are positively related to alcohol consumption. We also find that siblings are more influential than parents, that the mother is more influential for females and the father for males.     

The Impact of the German Child Benefit on Household Expenditures and Consumption

The German Child Benefit (‘Kindergeld’) is paid to legal guardians of children as a cash benefit. The benefit does not depend on household income or other household characteristics. I use exogenous variations in the amount of child benefit received by households in the German Socio‐Economic Panel to estimate the impact of a given change in the child benefit on food expenditures of households, the probability of owning a home, rent per square meter, measures of the size of the home, as well as parents’ smoking behavior and parents’ alcohol consumption. Households primarily increase per capita food expenditures in response to increases in child benefit, and they also improve housing conditions. The effect of child benefit on per capita food expenditures is larger for low‐income households compared to high‐income households. I do not find a significant effect of child benefit on parents’ smoking or drinking.     

MALE AND FEMALE MARRIAGE RETURNS TO SCHOOLING

A collective marriage matching model is estimated and calibrated to quantify the share of returns to schooling that is realized through marriage. The predictions of the model are matched with detailed Danish household data on the relationship between schooling and wage rates, the division of time and goods within the household, and the extent to which men and women sort positively on several traits in marriage. Counterfactual analysis conducted with the model suggests that Danish men and women are earning on the order of half of their returns to schooling through improved marital outcomes.     

Alcohol availability and alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents

The impact of alcohol availability on alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents centres on the sensitivity of consumption to changes in the full price of alcohol – the dollar price of alcohol plus the time and travel costs associated with acquiring alcohol. Reducing the number of licensed alcohol vendors raises the time and travel costs of alcohol; if alcohol consumption is responsive to this price increase, then drinking and driving may decrease. Using data on the 254 counties in the US state of Texas, the results in this paper show that alcohol availability has a significant impact on alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents. Thus, alcohol vendor restrictions can be an important policy tool in reducing such accidents.