title: Alcohol and marijuana use among college students: economic complements or substitutes?
abstract: Previous research has shown that the recent tightening of college alcohol policies has been effective at reducing college students' drinking. Over the period in which these stricter alcohol policies have been put in place, marijuana use among college students has increased. This raises the question of whether current policies aimed at reducing alcohol consumption are inadvertently encouraging marijuana use. This paper begins to address this question by investigating the relationship between the demands for alcohol and marijuana for college students using data from the 1993, 1997 and 1999 waves of the Harvard School of Public Health's College Alcohol Study (CAS). We find that alcohol and marijuana are economic complements and that policies that increase the full price of alcohol decrease participation in marijuana use.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia. jenny.williams@unimelb.edu.au
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Rosalie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liccardo Pacula
authors.forename: Frank J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Chaloupka
authors.forename: Henry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wechsler
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000367:Age Factors; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology; D003657:Decision Making; D004335:Drug and Narcotic Control / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005260:Female; D006291:Health Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008385:Marijuana Smoking / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology; D017059:Models, Econometric; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009042:Motivation; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012737:Sex Factors; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013660:Taxes; D014481:United States; D014495:Universities / Q000458:organization & administration