The Effect of Minimum Legal Drinking Age Restrictions on Teenage Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes

Inna Cintina ()
Additional contact information
Inna Cintina: Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa

No 201206, Working Papers from University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics

Abstract: I estimate the effect of state minimum legal drinking ages (MLDA) on teen pregnancy, birth, and abortion rates using individual level data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Results from a discrete-time hazard model indicate that a decrease in the MLDA below 21 years increases the probability of pregnancy among black teens and, surprisingly, decreases the probability of pregnancy among Hispanics. Yet, the effect on white women is statistically insignificant. I find evidence of a link between pregnancy outcome and changes in the individual alcohol consumption eligibility status at the time of pregnancy. A similar, yet statistically weaker, association is observed for changes in the MLDA at the time of pregnancy.

Keywords: Minimum legal drinking age; Alcohol; Teen Pregnancy; Teen Births; Teen abortions; Discrete-time hazard model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43
Date: 2012-04-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.economics.hawaii.edu/research/workingpapers/WP_12-6.pdf First version, 2012 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hai:wpaper:201206

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.economics ... esearch/working.html

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Web Technician ().