Citation

Crost B, Guerrero S. J. Health Econ. 2012; 31(1): 112-121.

Affiliation

Department of Economics, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO 80127, United States.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jhealeco.2011.12.005

PMID

22381404

Abstract

This paper exploits the discontinuity created by the minimum legal drinking age of 21 years to estimate the causal effect of increased alcohol availability on marijuana use. We find that consumption of marijuana decreases sharply at age 21, while consumption of alcohol increases, suggesting that marijuana and alcohol are substitutes. We further find that the substitution effect between alcohol and marijuana is stronger for women than for men. Our results suggest that policies designed to limit alcohol use have the unintended consequence of increasing marijuana use.

Language: en