TY  - JOUR
AU  - Watson,Tara
AU  - Fertig,Angela
TI  - Minimum Drinking Age Laws and Infant Health Outcomes
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14118
PY  - 2008
Y2  - June 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14118
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14118.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Tara Watson
Department of Economics
Williams College
24 Hopkins Hall Drive
Williamstown, MA 01267
Tel: 413/884-2517
Fax: 413/597-4045
E-Mail: tara.watson@williams.edu

Angela Fertig
University of Georgia
College of Public Health and
Carl Vinson Institute of Government
Athens, GA  30602
E-Mail: afertig@uga.edu
AB  - Alcohol policies have potentially far-reaching impacts on risky sexual behavior, prenatal health behaviors, and subsequent outcomes for infants.  We examine whether changes in minimum drinking age (MLDA) laws affect the likelihood of poor birth outcomes. Using data from the National Vital Statistics (NVS) for the years 1978-88, we find that a drinking age of 18 is associated with adverse outcomes among births to young mothers -- including higher incidences of low birth weight and premature birth, but not congenital malformations.  The effects are largest among black women.  We find suggestive evidence from both the NVS and the 1979 National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY) that the MLDA laws alter the composition of births that occur.  In states with lenient drinking laws, young black mothers are more likely to have used alcohol 12 months prior to the birth of their child and less likely to report paternal information on the birth certificate.  We suspect that lenient drinking laws generate poor birth outcomes because they increase the number of unplanned pregnancies.
ER  -