We examine whether adults’ alcohol consumption and traffic fatalities are associated with the legal drinking environment those adults experienced between the ages of 18 and 20. We find that the difference between an environment in which a person was never allowed to drink legally at those ages...

We present an analysis of the associations between cognitive and noncognitive traits measured at the end of childhood and mental and physical health at age 41. Results suggest that adolescent cognitive ability and self-esteem have a significant association with health at age 41. Most...

This paper discusses estimates of the effect of welfare reform,as measured by the imposition of time limits and family cap provisions, on the employment and fertility of less educated unmarried women. This analysis shows that welfare reform has induced less educated unmarried women to move from...

Declines in the welfare caseload in the late 1990s brought significant change to the lives of many low-educated, single mothers. Many single mothers left welfare and entered the labor market and others found different ways to avoid going on public assistance. These changes may have affected the...

Data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth 1979 and 1997 cohorts were used to compare welfare use, fertility, educational attainment, and marriage among teenage women in the years before and immediately following welfare reform. The first objective was to document differences between...

Individual data on induced abortions from Mississippi and South Carolina are used to examine the effect of parental consent laws and mandatory delay statutes on two outcomes among teens: the point in pregnancy at which the abortion occurs and whether teens obtain abortions in or outside their...

Drug use and welfare are two serious social problems that have received widespread public attention. Recently, it has been suggested that illicit drug use is a major cause of welfare, although there is only anecdotal evidence to support such a claim. This article provides the first systematic...

A substantial body of research has found that expansions in Medicaid eligibility increased enrollment in Medicaid, reduced the rate of uninsured, and reduced the rate of private health insurance coverage (i.e., crowd out). Notably, there has been little research that has examined the mechanism...