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Alcohol use and pregnancies among youth: Evidence from a semi-parametric approach

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  • Inna Cintina

    (University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, Research Analyst and Junior Specialist)

Abstract

Despite a well-established correlation between alcohol intake and various risk-taking sexual behaviors, the causality remains unknown. I model the effect of alcohol use on the likelihood of pregnancy among youth using a variety of estimation techniques. The preference is given to the semi-parametric model where the cumulative distribution of heterogeneity is approximated by a 4-point discrete distribution. Using data on 17-28 year-old women from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I find that alcohol consumption increases the likelihood of pregnancy by 4.7 percentage points. Quantitatively similar but statistically weaker effects were found in the fully parametric models such as the two-stage least squares model and the bivariate probit model. Finally, the fully parametric models that ignore the effect of unobserved heterogeneity failed to establish this relationship.

Suggested Citation

  • Inna Cintina, 2011. "Alcohol use and pregnancies among youth: Evidence from a semi-parametric approach," Working Papers 2011-7, University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, University of Hawaii at Manoa.
    • Handle: RePEc:hae:wpaper:2011-7
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    alcohol; minimum legal drinking age; teenage pregnancy; discrete-time hazard model;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy

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