Early Cannabis Use and School to Work Transition of Young Men

Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper 2017-004/V

50 Pages Posted: 16 Jan 2017

See all articles by Jenny Williams

Jenny Williams

University of Melbourne - Department of Economics

Jan van Ours

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Erasmus School of Economics (ESE)

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: January 10, 2017

Abstract

We study the impact of early cannabis use on the school to work transition of young men. Our empirical approach accounts for common unobserved confounders that jointly affect selection into cannabis use and the transition from school to work using a multivariate mixed proportional hazard framework in which unobserved heterogeneities are drawn from a discrete mixing distribution. Extended models account for school leavers' option of returning to school rather than starting work as a competing risk. We find that early cannabis use leads young men to accept job offers more quickly and at a lower wage rate compared to otherwise similar males who did not use cannabis. These effects are present only for those who use cannabis for longer than a year before leaving school. Overall, our findings are consistent with a mechanism whereby early non-experimental cannabis use leads to greater impatience in initial labor market decision-making.

Keywords: multivariate duration models, discrete factors, cannabis use, job search, wages

JEL Classification: C41, I12, J01

Suggested Citation

Williams, Jenny and van Ours, Jan, Early Cannabis Use and School to Work Transition of Young Men (January 10, 2017). Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper 2017-004/V, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2898870 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2898870

Jenny Williams (Contact Author)

University of Melbourne - Department of Economics ( email )

Melbourne, 3010
Australia

HOME PAGE: http://www.economics.unimelb.edu.au/staffprofile/jwilliams.htm

Jan Van Ours

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) ( email )

P.O. Box 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam, NL 3062 PA
Netherlands

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