Essays on the Economics of Risky Health Behaviors Pubblico
Peng, Handie (2013)
Published
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
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