Business cycle impacts on substance use of adolescents: A multi-country analysis.

Publisher: Elsevier Science Country of Publication: Netherlands NLM ID: 101166135 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1873-6130 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 1570677X NLM ISO Abbreviation: Econ Hum Biol Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: Amsterdam ; New York : Elsevier Science, c2003-

Adolescent Behavior*; Economics/*statistics & numerical data ; Global Health/*statistics & numerical data ; Substance-Related Disorders/*epidemiology ; Unemployment/*statistics & numerical data; Adolescent ; Alcoholism/epidemiology ; Beer/statistics & numerical data ; Economic Recession/statistics & numerical data ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Marijuana Abuse/epidemiology ; Prevalence ; Smoking/epidemiology ; Socioeconomic Factors ; Wine/statistics & numerical data

Populations respond to changes in the economic climate in a variety of ways. The recent 'Great Recession' has brought attention to the vulnerability of many economies around the world to changes in non-domestic macroeconomic fluctuations. However, empirical evidence on the responses of adolescents' substance consumption behaviour when the economy deteriorates is very scarce. Thus, the focus of this paper is to analyse the substance consumption patterns displayed by adolescents in response to changes in macroeconomic conditions in a large number of countries. Our results show that beer and wine consumption vary counter-cyclically (a 1pp increase in the unemployment rate increases the probability of drinking beer (wine) by 3% (5.5%)) while adolescent smoking prevalence varies pro-cyclically (a 1pp increase in the unemployment rate decreases the probability of being a current smoker by 3.8%). More importantly, we find that the probability of ever being drunk increases by 1.3% for a 1pp increase in the unemployment rate. Further to this, substantial heterogeneous effects from the aggregate-level results were found when analysing a variety of demographic and geographic dimensions. In light of the existing empirical evidence which outlines that early substance initiators demonstrate worse neurological deficits and suffer stronger labour market penalties (compared to later initiators or abstainers) these findings can aid policy makers in reducing these lasting adverse outcomes.
(Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Keywords: Adolescent's behaviour; Business cycle conditions; Multi-country analysis; Substance consumption

Date Created: 20170505 Date Completed: 20181029 Latest Revision: 20181029

20240829

10.1016/j.ehb.2017.04.005

28472713