Carpenter Christopher
Graduate School of Management, University of California at Irvine, 92697-3125, USA.
J Health Econ. 2005 May;24(3):613-28. doi: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2004.09.014.
Recent research calls into question previous methods for estimating the relationship between alcohol use and risky sexual behavior among youths [Rashad, I., Kaestner, R., 2004. Teenage sex, drugs and alcohol use: problems identifying the cause of risky behaviors. Journal of Health Economics 23, 493-503]. This paper provides new evidence on this question by using reductions in heavy alcohol use among underage males induced by state adoption of very strict age-targeted "Zero Tolerance" drunk driving laws. I estimate reduced form models of the effects of Zero Tolerance laws on state gonorrhea rates by age group and race over the period 1981-2000, controlling for state and year fixed effects and state-specific time trends. I find that adoption of a Zero Tolerance law was associated with a significant reduction in gonorrhea rates among 15-19-year-old white males, with no effect for slightly older males age 20-24 whose drinking behavior was unaffected by the tougher policies. I find mixed effects for white females and no significant effects for blacks. While not conclusive, these results suggest an important role for alcohol use in risky sexual behavior among young men.
近期的研究对先前用于估计青少年饮酒与危险性行为之间关系的方法提出了质疑[拉沙德，I.，凯斯特纳，R.，2004年。青少年性行为、吸毒和饮酒：确定危险行为原因的问题。《健康经济学杂志》23卷，第493 - 503页]。本文通过利用各州采用非常严格的针对特定年龄的“零容忍”酒驾法律导致未成年男性重度饮酒减少这一情况，为该问题提供了新的证据。我估计了1981 - 2000年期间零容忍法律对按年龄组和种族划分的各州淋病发病率影响的简化模型，控制了州和年份固定效应以及各州特定的时间趋势。我发现采用零容忍法律与15 - 19岁白人男性淋病发病率的显著降低相关，而对年龄稍大的20 - 24岁男性没有影响，他们的饮酒行为不受更严格政策的影响。我发现白人女性的影响不一，对黑人则没有显著影响。虽然这些结果并非决定性的，但它们表明饮酒在年轻男性危险性行为中起着重要作用。
