(Translated by https://www.hiragana.jp/)
Taking Chances: The Effect of Growing Up on Welfare on the Risky Behavior of Young People
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp4095.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Taking Chances: The Effect of Growing Up on Welfare on the Risky Behavior of Young People

Author

Listed:
  • Cobb-Clark, Deborah A.

    (University of Sydney)

  • Ryan, Chris

    (University of Melbourne)

  • Sartbayeva, Anastasia

    (Australian National University)

Abstract

We analyze the effect of growing up on welfare on young people's involvement in a variety of social and health risks. Young people in welfare families are much more likely to take both social and health risks. Much of the apparent link between family welfare history and risk taking disappears, however, once we account for family structure and mothers' decisions regarding their own risk taking and investment in their children. Interestingly, we find no significant effect of socio-economic status per se. Overall, we find no evidence that growing up on welfare causes young people to engage in risky behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Ryan, Chris & Sartbayeva, Anastasia, 2009. "Taking Chances: The Effect of Growing Up on Welfare on the Risky Behavior of Young People," IZA Discussion Papers 4095, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4095
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp4095.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Grossman & Robert Kaestner & Sara Markowitz, 2004. "Get High and Get Stupid: The Effect of Alcohol and Marijuana Use on Teen Sexual Behavior," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 2(4), pages 413-441, September.
    2. Joseph G. Altonji & Todd E. Elder & Christopher R. Taber, 2005. "Selection on Observed and Unobserved Variables: Assessing the Effectiveness of Catholic Schools," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(1), pages 151-184, February.
    3. Gary S. Becker, 1974. "Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach," NBER Chapters, in: Essays in the Economics of Crime and Punishment, pages 1-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Maurin, Eric, 2002. "The impact of parental income on early schooling transitions: A re-examination using data over three generations," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 301-332, September.
    5. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2004. "Parental Employment and Child Cognitive Development," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(1).
    6. Lisa M. Powell & Frank J. Chaloupka, 2005. "Parents, public policy, and youth smoking," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(1), pages 93-112.
    7. Christian Bantle & John P. Haisken-DeNew, 2002. "Smoke Signals: The Intergenerational Transmission of Smoking Behavior," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 277, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    8. Laura M. Argys & Daniel I. Rees & Susan L. Averett & Benjama Witoonchart, 2006. "Birth Order and Risky Adolescent Behavior," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 44(2), pages 215-233, April.
    9. Levine, Phillip B. & Zimmerman, David J., 2005. "Children's welfare exposure and subsequent development," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 31-56, January.
    10. Gary Painter & David I. Levine, 2000. "Family Structure and Youths' Outcomes: Which Correlations are Causal?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 35(3), pages 524-549.
    11. Heather Antecol & Kelly Bedard, 2007. "Does single parenthood increase the probability of teenage promiscuity, substance use, and crime?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 20(1), pages 55-71, February.
    12. Rashad, Inas & Kaestner, Robert, 2004. "Teenage sex, drugs and alcohol use: problems identifying the cause of risky behaviors," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 493-503, May.
    13. Michael Grossman & Sarah Markowitz, 2005. "I Did What Last Night? Adolescent Risky Sexual Behaviors and Substance Abuse," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 31(3), pages 383-405, Summer.
    14. Rees, Daniel I. & Argys, Laura M. & Averett, Susan L., 2001. "New evidence on the relationship between substance use and adolescent sexual behavior," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 835-845, September.
    15. Lisa A. Gennetian, 2004. "How Sibling Composition Affects Adolescent Schooling Outcomes When Welfare Reform Policies Increase Maternal Employment," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 30(1), pages 81-100, Winter.
    16. Robert Haveman & Barbara Wolfe, 1995. "The Determinants of Children's Attainments: A Review of Methods and Findings," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(4), pages 1829-1878, December.
    17. Cardoso, Ana Rute & Verner, Dorte, 2008. "Youth risk-taking behavior in Brazil : drug use and teenage pregnancy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4548, The World Bank.
    18. Sen, Bisakha, 2002. "Does alcohol-use increase the risk of sexual intercourse among adolescents? Evidence from the NLSY97," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 1085-1093, November.
    19. Jane Waldfogel & Wen-Jui Han & Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, 2002. "The effects of early maternal employment on child cognitive development," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 39(2), pages 369-392, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Sonja C. Kassenboehmer & Trinh Le & Duncan McVicar & Rong Zhang, 2015. "Is there an educational penalty for being suspended from school?," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 376-395, August.
    2. Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Sonja C. Kassenboehmer & Trinh Le & Duncan McVicar & Rong Zhang, 2015. "‘High’-School: The Relationship between Early Marijuana Use and Educational Outcomes," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 91(293), pages 247-266, June.
    3. Alison L. Booth & Pamela Katic, 2013. "Cognitive Skills, Gender and Risk Preferences," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 89(284), pages 19-30, March.
    4. Johnston, David W. & Schurer, Stefanie & Shields, Michael A., 2013. "Exploring the intergenerational persistence of mental health: Evidence from three generations," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1077-1089.
    5. Trinh Le, 2013. "Does Participation in Extracurricular Activities Reduce Engagement in Risky Behaviours?," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2013n35, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ana I. Gil Lacruz & Marta Gil Lacruz & Juan Oliva, 2009. "Are Drinkers Prone to Engage in Risky Sexual Behaviors?," Working Papers 2009-32, FEDEA.
    2. Inna Cintina, 2011. "Alcohol use and pregnancies among youth: Evidence from a semi-parametric approach," Working Papers 2011-7, University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, University of Hawaii at Manoa.
    3. DeSimone, Jeff, 2010. "Binge Drinking And Risky Sex Among College Students," Working Papers 90483, American Association of Wine Economists.
    4. Eiji Yamamura, 2016. "Smokers’ Preference for Divorce and Extramarital Sex," Journal of Economics and Econometrics, Economics and Econometrics Society, vol. 59(2), pages 44-76.
    5. Cardoso, Ana Rute & Verner, Dorte, 2007. "Youth Risk-Taking Behavior in Brazil: Drug Use and Teenage Pregnancies," IZA Discussion Papers 3030, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Núria Rodríquez-Planas, 2010. "Mentoring, Educational Services, and Economic Incentives Longer-term Evidence on Risky Behaviors from a Randomized Trial," Working Papers 462, Barcelona School of Economics.
    7. Dimitrios Nikolaou, 2022. "Bullying, cyberbullying, and youth health behaviors," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(1), pages 75-105, February.
    8. Jeffrey S. DeSimone, 2010. "Binge Drinking & Sex in High School," NBER Working Papers 16132, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Zuleika Ferre & Mariana Gerstenblüth & Máximo Rossi & Patricia Triunfo, 2009. "Decisión sobre iniciación sexual: el caso de adolescentes uruguayas," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0409, Department of Economics - dECON.
    10. Ceren Ertan Yörük & Barış Yörük, 2015. "Alcohol consumption and risky sexual behavior among young adults: evidence from minimum legal drinking age laws," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 28(1), pages 133-157, January.
    11. Marco Francesconi & Stephen Jenkins & Thomas Siedler, 2010. "Childhood family structure and schooling outcomes: evidence for Germany," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 23(3), pages 1073-1103, June.
    12. Carpenter, Christopher, 2005. "Youth alcohol use and risky sexual behavior: evidence from underage drunk driving laws," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 613-628, May.
    13. Alan I. Barreca & Marianne E. Page, 2012. "A Pint for a Pound? Reevaluating the Relationship Between Minimum Drinking Age Laws and Birth Outcomes," Working Papers 1220, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    14. Quinn Moore & Lucie Schmidt, 2004. "Do Maternal Investments in Human Capital Affect Childrens' Academic Achievement?," Department of Economics Working Papers 2004-13, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    15. Waddell, Glen R., 2010. "Gender and the Influence of Peer Alcohol Consumption on Adolescent Sexual Activity," IZA Discussion Papers 4880, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. May Luong & Anindya Sen, 2006. "Sex, Teen Pregnancies, STDs, and Beer Prices: Empirical Evidence from Canada," Working Papers 06001, University of Waterloo, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2006.
    17. Fertig, Angela R. & Watson, Tara, 2009. "Minimum drinking age laws and infant health outcomes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 737-747, May.
    18. Michele Baggio & Alberto Chong & David Simon, 2018. "Sex, Drugs, and Baby Booms: Can Behavior Overcome Biology?," NBER Working Papers 25208, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Alan Barreca & Marianne Page, 2015. "A Pint for A Pound? Minimum Drinking Age Laws and Birth Outcomes," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(4), pages 400-418, April.
    20. Alex Acworth & Nicolas de Roos & Hajime Katayama, 2012. "Substance use and adolescent sexual activity," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(9), pages 1067-1079, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    youths; socio-economic disadvantage; welfare; risky behavior;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4095. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.