Drug use and welfare are two serious social problems that have received widespread public attention. Recently, it has been suggested that illicit drug use is a major cause of welfare, although there is only anecdotal evidence to support such a claim. This paper provides the first systematic analysis of the issue by examining the relationship between illicit drug use and welfare participation among a nationally representative sample of young adults. The results indicate that past year drug use, predominantly marijuana use, is positively related to future welfare participation for both non-black and black women. The magnitude of the drug effect, however, is modest: if drug use among welfare participants was reduced to the levels of non-participants, welfare participation would decline by approximately one percent.
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number
5555.
Length: Date of creation: May 1996 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5555
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Find related papers by JEL classification: I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
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Robert Kaestner, 1999.
"Does Drug Use Cause Poverty?,"
NBER Chapters,
in: The Economic Analysis of Substance Use and Abuse: An Integration of Econometrics and Behavioral Economic Research, pages 327-368
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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