Economic costs of alcoholism and alcohol abuse were $85.8 billion in 1990, 40 percent attributable to lost productivity. Few studies have examined the costs of women's drinking separately, even through there are gender differences in labor fore participation and time spent in household related activities including child care. Further, the impact of women's drinking on the family and on children is likely to be different, if not greater, than for male drinking. Moreover, despite the growing body of research on the etiology and epidemiology of women's drinking, relatively little is known about how economic influences such as income, price of alcohol, regulation (including licensing and number of outlets), and policy decisions (including treatment availability) impact women's consumption and abuse of alcohol. The proposed research will extend our understanding of the special circumstances facing young adult women (aged 17-31) and how they respond to these. The proposed research will examine the course of a alcohol use/abuse in young adult women and relationships to economic regulatory and policy factors; assess the impact of alcohol use/abuse on household and family roles including the health and behavior of children; and assess the impact of alcohol use/abuse on labor fore participation and productivity. The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and Children of the NLSY data sets are used to examine changes in alcohol use/abuse over time for young adult women and to relate these changes to community regulatory and policy characteristics, family characteristics, characteristics of the women including biological, psychological and life cycle. Economic models of addiction and labor supply will be estimated for both men and women. The study will look at work place productivity as well as child care. Women drink less but are more susceptible to negative biologic sequelae of alcohol consumption, perhaps due to body water differences, in gastric alcohol dehydrogenase activity and first place metabolism. They are more vulnerable to hepatic and other alcohol related diseases such as gynecologic and reproductive problems. The investigators claim this will be the first study to employ economic models of addiction to focus on women's alcohol use and abuse. It will look at job related productivity measures to include not only employment and earning, but also duration of unemployment and job turnover. Estimation of reduced form equations will provide direct estimates of the relative effectiveness of policy relevant variables.
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| Jones, Alison Snow (2007) Maternal alcohol abuse/dependence, children's behavior problems, and home environment: estimates from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth using propensity score matching. J Stud Alcohol Drugs 68:266-75 |
| Jones, Alison Snow; Richmond, David W (2006) Causal effects of alcoholism on earnings: estimates from the NLSY. Health Econ 15:849-71 |
