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Alcohol Consumption and Long‐Term Labor Market Outcomes
Author(s) -
Böckerman Petri,
Hyytinen Ari,
Maczulskij Terhi
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
health economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.55
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1099-1050
pISSN - 1057-9230
DOI - 10.1002/hec.3290
Subject(s) - earnings , consumption (sociology) , health and retirement study , alcohol consumption , endowment , demography , demographic economics , economics , term (time) , endowment effect , medicine , gerontology , alcohol , sociology , social science , biochemistry , chemistry , philosophy , physics , epistemology , quantum mechanics , accounting , microeconomics
Summary This paper examines whether alcohol consumption is related to long‐term labor market outcomes. We use twin data for Finnish men and women matched to register‐based individual information on employment and earnings. The twin data allow us to account for the shared environmental and genetic factors. The quantity of alcohol consumption was measured by weekly average consumption using self‐reported data from three surveys (1975, 1981 and 1990). The average of an individual's employment months and earnings were measured in adulthood over the period 1990–2009. The models that account for the shared environmental and genetic factors reveal that former drinkers and heavy drinkers both have almost 20% lower earnings compared with moderate drinkers. On average, former drinkers work annually approx. 1 month less over the 20‐year observation period. These associations are robust to the use of covariates, such as education, pre‐existing health endowment and smoking. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.