Do Minimum Wages Really Increase Youth Drinking and Drunk Driving?

Laura Argys, Melinda Pitts and Joseph J. Sabia

No 2014-20, FRB Atlanta Working Paper from Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Abstract: Adams, Blackburn, and Cotti (ABC) found that increases in minimum wages were positively related to drunk driving?related traffic fatalities for those ages 16 to 20. The hypothesized mechanism for this relationship?increased alcohol consumption caused by minimum wage?induced income gains?remains empirically unexplored. Using data from two national behavioral surveys and an identification strategy identical to ABC, we find little evidence that an increase in the minimum wage leads to increases in alcohol consumption or drunk driving among teenagers. These results suggest a much smaller set of plausible causal channels to explain ABC's findings.

Keywords: minimum wages; teen drunk driving; alcohol consumption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J38 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2014-11-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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