Benjamin W. Cowan

Education, maternal smoking, and the earned income tax credit

Abstract We estimate and explore mechanisms of the impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) expansions on the smoking behavior of women. Differential increases in federal EITC benefits by family size in the mid-1990s allow for a comparison of smoking status changes between mothers with one and more than one child. We exploit these changes in a difference-in-differences framework using data from the 1993-2001 waves of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and show that the increase in EITC benefits yielded a significant decline in the likelihood of being a current smoker among unmarried mothers with less than a college degree. Although women with a high school degree or less and women with some college education received similar benefit increases on average and exhibited similar labor supply responses, the reduction in the likelihood of smoking was concentrated among those with some college.

Testing for Educational Credit Constraints Using Heterogeneity in Individual Time Preferences

I develop a model in which individual time discount rates have a larger effect on human capital accumulation when credit constraints are binding. Impatient individuals obtain less schooling when borrowing constraints limit the ability to finance consumption during school. Using data from the NLSY79, I show that self-reported measures of time preferences have a significantly higher effect on the college attendance decisions of blacks than those of whites and the decisions of low-income youths than those of high-income youths. These results provide new evidence that members of disadvantaged groups obtain lower levels of schooling because they are credit constrained.

The Induced Innovation Hypothesis and U.S. Public Agricultural Research

Applicability of the induced innovation hypothesis-that a change in relative input prices induces innovation to economize use of the increasingly expensive input (Hicks 1932)-is examined for U.S. public agricultural research. A reduced-form test is developed using input prices from the agricultural production sector, expenditures from the public research sector aimed at developing new technology to save specific agricultural inputs, and variables to control for innovation marginal cost differences and nonhomotheticity. Unlike recent demand-side studies that soundly reject the induced innovation hypothesis for agriculture, support for the hypothesis is found for several input pairings through these tests of public agricultural research using state-level panel data.

Recreational marijuana legalization and college student use: Early evidence

We analyze marijuana use by college undergraduates before and after legalization of recreational marijuana. Using survey data from the National College Health Assessment, we show that students at Washington State University experienced a significant increase in marijuana use after legalization. This increase is larger than would be predicted by national trends. The change is strongest among females, Black students, and Hispanic students. The increase for underage students is as much as for legal-age students. We find no corresponding changes in the consumption of tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs.

March Madness: NCAA Tournament Participation and College Alcohol Use

We examine the impact of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on college students’ drinking behavior using a nationally representative sample of American institutions. While success in intercollegiate athletics may augment the visibility of a university to prospective students and thereby benefit the school, it may also have a negative effect on the current student body by influencing risky behavior, especially the consumption of alcohol commonly associated with game day festivities. Using the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS), we find that a school’s participation in the NCAA Tournament is associated with a 30% increase in binge drinking by male students at that school. The results suggest that this increase is not offset by less alcohol use before or after the tournament (intertemporal substitution) but instead seems to represent a net increase in the amount of alcohol consumed by students at participating schools.

The Effects of Graduation Requirements on Risky Health Behaviors of High School Students

Previous studies have shown that years of formal schooling attained affects health behaviors, but little is known about how the stringency of academic programs affects such behaviors, especially among youth. Using national survey data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, we study the effects of mathematics and science high school graduation requirements (HSGR) on high school students’ risky health behaviors—specifically on drinking, smoking, and marijuana use. We find that an increase in mathematics and science HSGR has significant negative impacts on alcohol consumption among high school students, especially males and nonwhite students. The effects of math and science HSGR on smoking and marijuana use are also negative but generally less precisely estimated. Our results suggest that curriculum design may have potential as a policy tool to curb youth drinking.