The Impact of Alcohol on Mental Health, Physical Fitness, and Job Performance

Marigee Bacolod, Jesse Cunha and Yu-Chu Shen

No 23542, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We study the impact of legal access to alcohol on a range of behavioral and physical outcomes of U.S. Army soldiers in a regression discontinuity design. The wealth of novel data collected by the military on cognitive ability, psychological health, and family history allows us to explore how impacts vary with risk factors for alcohol consumption. Overall, we observe a large and significant increase in drinking after the 21st birthday, but the increases are largest amongst those who were depressed, had a family history of mental health problems, had better coping ability, and had higher cognitive ability. Despite the large increase in consumption, we do not find any meaningful impacts of legal access to alcohol - overall or in any sub-group - on any of the short-term outcomes we observe, including suicidal tendencies, depression, tobacco use, physical fitness, psychological health, deployability, smoking, and job-related infractions. Acknowledging the limitations for extrapolation out of sample, we discuss the policy implications of our results.

JEL-codes: I1 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
Note: EH
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