Essays on the Economics of Risky Health Behaviors Open Access

Abstract

The first chapter The Effects of Maternal Employment on the Initiation of Adolescent Risky Behaviors studies the effects of maternal employment on the initiation of adolescent risky behaviors. We find that maternal employment after the first few years of a child's life has a positive and significant impact on the initiation of alcohol, cigarette and marijuana consumption as well as sexual activity during adolescence. These effects remain significant when the average maternal employment over a child's life is used as the independent variable. Subgroup analyses indicate that the positive and significant results appear to be driven mostly by households with higher socioeconomic status.

The second chapter In Sickness and in Health: Same-Sex Marriage Laws and Sexually Transmitted Infections analyzes the relationship between same-sex marriage laws and sexually transmitted infections in the United States. Our findings may be summarized as follows. Laws banning same-sex marriage are unrelated to gonorrhea rates, which are a proxy for risky heterosexual behavior. They are positively associated with syphilis rates, which are a proxy for risky homosexual behavior. However, these estimates are smaller and less statistically significant when we exclude California. Also, laws permitting same-sex marriage are unrelated to gonorrhea or syphilis, but variation in these laws is insufficient to yield precise estimates.

The third chapter Weight and Labor Market Outcomes: Understanding the Role of Teenage Weight Status looks at whether the relationship between weight and labor market outcomes differs for individuals with different teenage weight statuses. The results indicate that there is indeed a heterogeneous effect: specifically, being overweight is associated with a wage premium (penalty) for adult white males who were healthy weight teens or HWT (obese or overweight teens or OOT). We also look at how much of the wage and employment differentials between HWT and OOT are explained by observed characteristics. We find that for white males and non-white females who were OOT, their lower wages are explained by their lower education. White females who were OOT tend to have a lower employment probability, and this differential is explained by their higher current BMI, lower education, and less work experience.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Chapter 1
The Effects of Maternal Employment on the Initiation of Adolescent Risky Behaviors 1
I. Introduction 2
II. Related Literature 5
A. Early Childhood Experiences 5
B. Middle Childhood and Adolescent Experiences 7
C. Maternal Employment 8
III. Hypotheses 10
IV. Data 13
A. Data Source 13
B. Dependent Variables 14
C. Independent Variables 15
E. Instrumental Variables 18
F. Other Control Variables 21
V. Methodology 23
VI. Empirical Results 28
A. Summary Statistics 28
B. Regression Results 30
Vii. Robustness Checks 34
VIII. Conclusions 38
References 39
Appendix 63
Chapter 2
In Sickness and in Health: Same-Sex Marriage Laws and Sexually Transmitted Infections 72
I. Introduction 73
II. Theory 76
III. Data and Empirical Strategy 79
A. State Laws on Same-Sex Marriage and Civil Union 79
B. State Panel Analysis: Dependent Variables 81
C. State Panel Analysis: Controls 82
D. Individual-Level Analysis 85
E. Empirical Models 86
IV. Results 87
V. Conclusion 92
References 94
Appendix 113
Chapter 3
Weight and Labor Market Outcomes: Understanding the Role of Teenage Weight Status 118
I. Introduction 119
II. Literature Review 123
III. Data and Summary Statistics 126
IV. Methods and Econometric Models 130
V. Results 133
VI. Discussion 141
VII. Conclusions 142
References 146
Appendix 157

List of Tables

Table 1.1 Variable definition and source 44
Table 1.2 Summary statistics by mother's employment status in the last calendar year 47
Table 1.3 Hours over Life and adolescent risky behavior initiation 49
Table 1.4 PTE over Life and adolescent risky behavior initiation 51
Table 1.5 Employment status over a child's life and adolescent risky behavior initiation 53
Table 1.6 Hours in different stages of a child's life and adolescent risky behavior initiation 54
Table 1.7 Hours over Life and adolescent risky behavior initiation, by maternal education 55
Table 1.8 Hours over Life and adolescent risky behavior initiation, by maternal marital status 57
Table 1.9 Hours over Life and adolescent risky behavior initiation, by Family Income over Life 59
Table 1.10 Hours over Life and adolescent risky behavior initiation, by child's race/ethnicity 61

Appendix Table 1.1 Suggestive test for the exogeneity of the instruments 64
Appendix Table 1.2 Suggestive test for the exogeneity of the instruments, restricting the sample to single mothers 66
Appendix Table 1.3 Role model effect high-level summary 67
Appendix Table 1.4 Varying the cutoff between the first few years and the subsequent years 68
Appendix Table 1.5 Robustness checks 70

Table 2.1 State Laws on Same-Sex Marriage and Civil Union 102
Table 2.2 Summary Statistics, 1981-2008 104
Table 2.3 Same-Sex Marriage Bans and Syphilis 105
Table 2.4 Same-Sex Marriage Bans and Gonorrhea 106
Table 2.5 Vote in Favor of Same-Sex Marriage Bans 107
Table 2.6 Dynamic Effects of Same-Sex Marriage Bans 108
Table 2.7 Same-Sex Marriage and Civil Union Laws 109
Table 2.8 Tolerance for Same-Sex Sex and Teen Sex Using GSS Microdata 110
Table 2.9 Sexual Behaviors Using GSS Microdata 111

Table 3.1 Summary Statistics 148
Table 3.2 OLS results with BMI as the main explanatory variable 149
Table 3.3 FE results with BMI as the main explanatory variables 150
Table 3.4 OLS results with clinical classification of weight as the main explanatory variables 151
Table 3.5 FE results with clinical classification of weight as the main explanatory variables 153
Table 3.6 Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition for the wage equations 155
Table 3.7 Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition for the employment probability equations 156

Appendix Table 3.1 Summary of the results for the tests of equal coefficients by teenage weight status 157

List of Figures

Figure 1.1 43

Figure 2.1 99
Figure 2.2 100
Figure 2.3 101

About this Dissertation

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Economics
Degree	PhD
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Economics, Labor Economics, General
Keyword	Sexually Transmitted Infections Wage and Employment Same-Sex Marriage Laws Maternal Employment Initiation of Adolescent Risky Behaviors Teenage Obesity
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Mialon, Hugo M, Emory University
Committee Members	Frisvold, David, Emory University Higgins, Matthew, Georgia Institute of Technology Francis, Andrew, Emory University

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