MacDonald Ziggy, Shields Michael A
Department of Economics, University of Leicester, UK.
Health Econ. 2004 Feb;13(2):139-55. doi: 10.1002/hec.816.
In this paper, we use data from the Health Survey of England to show that problem drinking is negatively and significantly associated with the probability of being in work, once the endogenous relationship between these outcomes is accounted for. Being a problem drinker leads to a substantial reduction in the probability of working by between 7 and 31%, the former figure being roughly equivalent to the positive effect of having a degree relative to no qualifications in our data. This finding is robust to a variety of identifying restrictions and definitions of problem drinking. Moreover, we find that problem drinking defined by the observed psychological and physical symptoms of alcohol is an important predictor of employment, and allows for the fact that individuals differ in their tolerance or susceptibility to alcohol. Our results suggest that there may be important labour market benefits from public health policies aimed at the prevention and treatment of problem drinking.
在本文中，我们利用来自英国健康调查的数据表明，一旦考虑到这些结果之间的内生关系，问题饮酒与就业概率呈负相关且具有显著相关性。成为问题饮酒者会导致工作概率大幅降低7%至31%，在我们的数据中，前一个数字大致相当于拥有学位相对于没有学历的积极影响。这一发现对于各种识别限制和问题饮酒的定义都是稳健的。此外，我们发现，由观察到的酒精心理和生理症状所定义的问题饮酒是就业的一个重要预测因素，并且考虑到个体对酒精的耐受性或易感性存在差异这一事实。我们的结果表明，旨在预防和治疗问题饮酒的公共卫生政策可能会给劳动力市场带来重要益处。
