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Cannabis Use and Mental Health Problems

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  • Jan C. van Ours & Jenny Williams

Abstract

This paper investigates whether cannabis use leads to worse mental health. To do so, we account for common unobserved factors a ecting mental health and cannabis consumption by modeling mental health jointly with the dynamics of cannabis use. Our main nding is that using cannabis increases the likelihood of mental health problems, with current use having a larger e ect than past use. The estimates suggest a dose response relationship between the frequency of recent cannabis use and the probability of currently experiencing a mental health problem.

Suggested Citation

  • Jan C. van Ours & Jenny Williams, 2009. "Cannabis Use and Mental Health Problems," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 1073, The University of Melbourne.
  • Handle: RePEc:mlb:wpaper:1073
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    12. Jan C. Van Ours, 2007. "The Effects of Cannabis Use on Wages of Prime‐age Males," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 69(5), pages 619-634, October.
    13. Gaure, Simen & Roed, Knut & Zhang, Tao, 2007. "Time and causality: A Monte Carlo assessment of the timing-of-events approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 1159-1195, December.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. van Ours, J.C., 2011. "The Long and Winding Road to Cannabis Legalization," Discussion Paper 2011-126, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    2. Jenny Williams & Rosalie Liccardo Pacula & Rosanna Smart, 2019. "De Facto or De Jure? Ethnic Differences in Quit Responses to Legal Protections of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries," NBER Working Papers 25555, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Junxing Chay & Seonghoon Kim, 2022. "Heterogeneous health effects of medical marijuana legalization: Evidence from young adults in the United States," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2), pages 269-283, February.
    4. Ali Palali & Jan C. van Ours, 2015. "Distance to Cannabis Shops and Age of Onset of Cannabis Use," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(11), pages 1483-1501, November.
    5. van Ours, Jan C. & Williams, Jenny, 2012. "The effects of cannabis use on physical and mental health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 564-577.
    6. Ali Palali & Jan C. Ours, 2017. "Cannabis use and support for cannabis legalization," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 1747-1770, December.
    7. Deck, Cary & Pate, Jennifer, 2022. "High time to study the relationship between marijuana use and economic behavior," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 1-14.
    8. Chakraborty Avinandan & Doremus Jacqueline & Stith Sarah, 2021. "The effects of recreational cannabis access on labor markets: evidence from Colorado," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 10(1), pages 1-86, January.
    9. 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.
    10. van Ours, Jan C. & Williams, Jenny & Fergusson, David & Horwood, L. John, 2013. "Cannabis use and suicidal ideation," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 524-537.
    11. Anderson, D. Mark & Rees, Daniel I. & Sabia, Joseph J., 2012. "High on Life? Medical Marijuana Laws and Suicide," IZA Discussion Papers 6280, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. D. Mark Anderson & Benjamin Hansen & Daniel I. Rees, 2015. "Medical Marijuana Laws and Teen Marijuana Use," American Law and Economics Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(2), pages 495-528.
    13. Jenny Williams & Jan C. van Ours, 2020. "Hazardous or not? Cannabis use and early labor market experiences of young men," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(10), pages 1148-1160, October.
    14. Sabia, Joseph J. & Nguyen, Thanh Tam, 2016. "The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on Labor Market Outcomes," IZA Discussion Papers 9831, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Silvia Balia & Rinaldo Brau, 2014. "A Country For Old Men? Long‐Term Home Care Utilization In Europe," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(10), pages 1185-1212, October.
    16. Anna Choi & Dhaval Dave & Joseph J. Sabia, 2016. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Medical Marijuana Laws and Tobacco Use," NBER Working Papers 22554, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    cannabis use; mental health; duration models; discrete factor models;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C41 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Duration Analysis; Optimal Timing Strategies
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • I19 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Other

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