IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lec/lpserc/99-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Wages of Sin? Illegal Drug Use and the Labour Market

Author

Listed:
  • Ziggy MacDonald
  • Stephen Pudney

Abstract

type="main" xml:lang="en"> We use data from the British Crime Survey (BCS) to analyse the relationship between illicit drug use and labour market outcomes for a sample of men and women aged 16–25. In using these data we highlight a serious design flaw in the BCS questionnaire structure that presents a serious barrier to statistical modelling of drug use at the individual level. We propose a simple way of overcoming this problem and proceed to estimate a model of occupational attainment jointly determined with unemployment and current drug use, conditional on past drug use. Separating the commonly abused drugs into a ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ category, we find that past hard drug use has a significant positive association with current unemployment, but find no significant association between past hard or soft drug use and occupational attainment. We also find no significant association between current drug use and attainment, although we observe that current drug use is associated with current unemployment.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Ziggy MacDonald & Stephen Pudney, "undated". "The Wages of Sin? Illegal Drug Use and the Labour Market," Discussion Papers in Public Sector Economics 99/6, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    • Handle: RePEc:lec:lpserc:99/6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.le.ac.uk/economics/research/RePEc/lec/lpserc/pserc99-6.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert Kaestner, 1994. "The Effect of Illicit Drug Use on the Labor Supply of Young Adults," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 29(1), pages 126-155.
    2. Mullahy, John & Sindelar, Jody, 1996. "Employment, unemployment, and problem drinking," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 409-434, August.
    3. Simon Burgess & Carol Propper, 1998. "Early Health Related Behaviours and their Impact on Later Life Chances: Evidence from the US (OUT (publ. in Health Economics, 7(5), 1998)," CASE Papers 006, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    4. French, Michael T. & Zarkin, Gary A., 1995. "Is moderate alcohol use related to wages? Evidence from four worksites," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 319-344, August.
    5. Harper, Barry & Haq, Mohammad, 1997. "Occupational Attainment of Men in Britain," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 49(4), pages 638-650, October.
    6. Donald S. Kenkel & David C. Ribar, 1994. "Alcohol Consumption and Young Adults' Socioeconomic Status," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 25(1994 Micr), pages 119-175.
    7. Z. MacDonald & S. Pudney, 2000. "Analysing drug abuse with British Crime Survey data: modelling and questionnaire design issues," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 49(1), pages 95-117.
    8. Ziggy MacDonald & Michael Shields, "undated". "The Impact of Alcohol Use on Occupational Attainment and Wages," Discussion Papers in Public Sector Economics 98/8, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    9. Andrew M. Gill & Robert J. Michaels, 1992. "Does Drug Use Lower Wages?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 45(3), pages 419-434, April.
    10. Charles A. Register & Donald R. Williams, 1992. "Labor Market Effects of Marijuana and Cocaine Use among Young Men," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 45(3), pages 435-448, April.
    11. Robert Kaestner, 1994. "New Estimates of the Effect of Marijuana and Cocaine Use on Wages," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 47(3), pages 454-470, April.
    12. Kaestner, Robert, 1991. "The Effect of Illicit Drug Use on the Wages of Young Adults," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(4), pages 381-412, October.
    13. Vivian Hamilton & Barton H. Hamilton, 1997. "Alcohol and Earnings: Does Drinking Yield a Wage Premium," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 30(1), pages 135-151, February.
    14. Simon Burgess & Carol Propper, 1998. "Early Health Related Behaviours and their Impact on Later Life Chances: Evidence from the US (OUT (publ. in Health Economics, 7(5), 1998)," CASE Papers case06, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    15. Simon M. Burgess & Carol Propper, 1998. "Early health‐related behaviours and their impact on later life chances: evidence from the US," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 7(5), pages 381-399, August.
    16. Zarkin, Gary A. & French, Michael T. & Mroz, Thomas & Bray, Jeremy W., 1998. "Alcohol use and wages: New results from the national household survey on drug abuse," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 53-68, January.
    17. Zarkin, Gary A. & Mroz, Thomas A. & Bray, Jeremy W. & French, Michael T., 1998. "The relationship between drug use and labor supply for young men," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 385-409, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Matt Dickson, 2013. "The Causal Effect of Education on Wages Revisited," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 75(4), pages 477-498, August.
    2. Jenny Williams & Christopher L. Skeels, 2006. "The impact of cannabis and cigarette use on health," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 969, The University of Melbourne.
    3. Ziggy MacDonald, 2004. "What Price Drug Use? The Contribution of Economics to an Evidence‐Based Drugs Policy," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(2), pages 113-152, April.
    4. Jenny Williams & Christopher Skeels, 2006. "The Impact of Cannabis Use on Health," De Economist, Springer, vol. 154(4), pages 517-546, December.
    5. Lindsey Richardson & Anita Minh & Deb McCormack & Allison Laing & Skye Barbic & Kanna Hayashi & M.-J. Milloy & Kimberly R. Huyser & Kathleen Leahy & Johanna Li, 2022. "Cohort Profile: The Assessing Economic Transitions (ASSET) Study—A Community-Based Mixed-Methods Study of Economic Engagement among Inner-City Residents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-24, August.
    6. Wang, Haining & Smyth, Russell & Cheng, Zhiming, 2017. "The economic returns to proficiency in English in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 91-104.
    7. M. D. R. Evans & Jonathan Kelley, 2004. "Effects of Family of Origin on Women’s and Men’s Workforce Involvement," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2004n25, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    8. Ziggy MacDonald, 2002. "The Employment Prospects of Scottish and English Drug Abusers," Discussion Papers in Economics 02/2, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ziggy MacDonald, 2004. "What Price Drug Use? The Contribution of Economics to an Evidence‐Based Drugs Policy," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(2), pages 113-152, April.
    2. MacDonald, Ziggy & Pudney, Stephen, 2000. "Illicit drug use, unemployment, and occupational attainment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 1089-1115, November.
    3. Ziggy MacDonald & Michael Shields, "undated". "The Impact of Alcohol Use on Occupational Attainment and Wages," Discussion Papers in Public Sector Economics 98/8, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    4. Ziggy Macdonald & Michael A. Shields, 2001. "The Impact of Alcohol Consumption on Occupational Attainment in England," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 68(271), pages 427-453, August.
    5. Ziggy MacDonald & Stephen Pudney, 2001. "Illicit drug use and labour market achievement: evidence from the UK," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(13), pages 1655-1668.
    6. Beau Kilmer & Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, 2010. "Preventing Drug Use," NBER Chapters, in: Targeting Investments in Children: Fighting Poverty When Resources Are Limited, pages 181-220, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Z. MacDonald & S. Pudney, 2000. "Analysing drug abuse with British Crime Survey data: modelling and questionnaire design issues," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 49(1), pages 95-117.
    8. Jan C. Ours & Jenny Williams, 2015. "Cannabis Use And Its Effects On Health, Education And Labor Market Success," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 993-1010, December.
    9. Williams, Jenny & van Ours, Jan C., 2017. "Early Cannabis Use and School to Work Transition of Young Men," IZA Discussion Papers 10488, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Michael T. French & Ioana Popovici, 2011. "That instrument is lousy! In search of agreement when using instrumental variables estimation in substance use research," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(2), pages 127-146, February.
    11. Jenny Williams & Christopher Skeels, 2006. "The Impact of Cannabis Use on Health," De Economist, Springer, vol. 154(4), pages 517-546, December.
    12. Jan C. van Ours, 2006. "Cannabis, cocaine and jobs," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(7), pages 897-917.
    13. Ziggy MacDonald & Michael A. Shields, 2004. "Does problem drinking affect employment? Evidence from England," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(2), pages 139-155, February.
    14. Erdal Tekin, 2004. "Employment, Wages, and Alcohol Consumption in Russia," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 71(2), pages 397-417, October.
    15. Pierre Kébreau Alexandre & Michael T. French, 2004. "Further Evidence on the Labor Market Effects of Addiction: Chronic Drug Use and Employment in Metropolitan Miami," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 22(3), pages 382-393, July.
    16. Thomas C. Buchmueller & Samuel H. Zuvekas, 1998. "Drug use, drug abuse, and labour market outcomes," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 7(3), pages 229-245, May.
    17. Keng, Shao-Hsun, 1998. "The demand for health, alcohol abuse, and labor market outcomes: a longitudinal study," ISU General Staff Papers 1998010108000012934, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    18. Mezza, Alvaro & Buchinsky, Moshe, 2021. "Illegal drugs, education, and labor market outcomes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 223(2), pages 454-484.
    19. M. Christopher Auld, 1998. "Wages, Alcohol Use, and Smoking: Simultaneous Estimates," HEW 9808001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Michael T. French & Gary A. Zarkin & Laura J. Dunlap, 1998. "Illicit Drug Use, Absenteeism, And Earnings At Six U.S. Worksites," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 16(3), pages 334-346, July.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:lec:lpserc:99/6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Abbie Sleath (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deleiuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.