Adolescent Alcohol and Marijuana Consumption: Is There Really a Gateway Effect? / Rosalie Liccardo Pacula.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w6348.

NBER working paper series no. w6348

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Adolescent Alcohol and Marijuana Consumption

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1998.

Summary:

This research analyzes the contemporaneous and intertemporal relationship between the demands for alcohol and marijuana by youths and young adults. A general theory of multi-commodity habit formation is developed and tested using data from the 1983-1984 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. An Adjusted Tobit specification is employed for estimating the empirical model. Habit persistence is distinguished from unobserved heterogeneity through a reduced form instrumental variable technique. The results show that higher beer prices significantly reduce the demand for both alcohol and marijuana, indicating a contemporaneous complementarity between these two substances even after controlling for commodity-specific habit formation. Further, prior use of alcohol and cigarettes significantly increases the likelihood of currently using marijuana, providing evidence in support of the gateway hypothesis.

Notes:

Print version record

January 1998.