Arbeitspapier

The Long-Run Impacts of Adolescent Drinking: Evidence from Zero Tolerance Laws

This paper provides the first long-run assessment of adolescent binge drinking on later- life health and labor market outcomes. Our analysis exploits cross-state variation in the rollout of "Zero Tolerance" (ZT) Laws, which set strict alcohol limits for drivers under age 21 and led to sharp reductions in youth binge drinking. We adopt a difference-in-differences approach that combines information on state and year of birth to identify individuals exposed to the laws during adolescence and tracks the evolving impacts into middle age. We find that ZT Laws led to significant improvements in later-life health. Individuals exposed to the laws during adolescence were substantially less likely to suffer from cognitive and physical limitations in their 40s. The health effects are mirrored by improved labor market outcomes. These patterns cannot be attributed to changes in educational attainment or marriage. Instead, we find that affected cohorts were substantially less likely to drink heavily by middle age, suggesting an important role for adolescent initiation and habit-formation in affecting long-term substance use.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 12833

Classification
Wirtschaft
Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
Health Behavior
Demand and Supply of Labor: General
Subject
Zero Tolerance Laws
binge drinking
disabilities
substance abuse

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Abboud, Tatiana
Bellou, Andriana
Lewis, Joshua
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
(where)
Bonn
(when)
2019

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Abboud, Tatiana
  • Bellou, Andriana
  • Lewis, Joshua
  • Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Time of origin

  • 2019

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