Labor Market Effects of Marijuana and Cocaine Use among Young Men

The Wages of Sin? Illegal Drug Use and the Labour Market

“…This is also true for the association between current drug use and attainment ( a Overall these results are quite revealing about the complex relationship between illicit drug use and labour market outcomes. Naturally we cannot make any claim about causality, however, our results clearly suggest that once employment status is taken into account when considering the relationship between drug use and occupational attainment, then unlike some other studies [9][10][11][12] there appears to be no apparent association. Having said this, just as we do not find a significant positive association between drug use and occupational attainment, nor do we find a negative association.…”

“…Kaestner used data from the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and found that once endogeneity of drug use and wages was taken into account, increased frequency of illicit drug use (in this case cocaine or marijuana) was associated with higher wages. This result, consistent across gender and age groups, was also supported by Gill and Michaels [10] and Register and Williams [11], who used the same data but slightly different approaches to control for the self-selection of individuals into drug use and the labour market. Kaestner's [12] follow-up work, using two waves of the NLSY, lent further support to these findings, although the longitudinal estimates suggested that the relationship between drug use and wages tended to vary according to the type of drug and individual.…”

Pharmacological routes to everyday exceptionality

“…Only rarely is there an explicit acknowledgement that factors in employment, such as long hours, might lead to drug taking (Burke and Fiksenbalm 2009;Sparks et al 2001). Despite scientific evidence that recreational drug use might help employees to deal with stress and even increase their productivity by providing a safety valve and off-switch to escape the pressures of work (Harris 2004;Register and Williams 1992), the only subject position available to the drug user within policy and managerialist discourses is that of a deviant engaged in an act of resistance ).…”

Early Cannabis Use and School to Work Transition of Young Men

“…2 For example, some studies report that cannabis use increases wages, some find no effect, while others report that cannabis use decreases wages (Kaestner, 1994b;Register and Williams, 1992;van Ours, 2007). In light of the current literature and the changing policy environment, there is an urgent need for robust and reliable evidence on the early labor market consequences of youthful cannabis use.…”

“…He finds that a higher frequency of cannabis use in the past 30 days leads to higher wages, and that this positive relationship does not diminish with age. Using the same data for males, and also instrumenting current cannabis use and using a Heckman selection procedure to account for selection into employment, Register and Williams (1992) find that a higher frequency of cannabis use in the past 30 days increases wages while uninstrumented long term use and use on the job reduce wages. In a follow-up study based on longitudinal data from the 1988 and the 1984 waves of the NLSY79, Kaestner (1994b) shows that his previous findings are confirmed using the 1988 cross-section.…”