DOES DRUG USE CAUSE POVERTY?

Robert Kaestner

Working Paper 6406

NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES

DOES DRUG USE CAUSE POVERTY?

Robert Kaestner

Working Paper 6406http://www.nber.org/papers/w6406

NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH1050 Massachusetts Avenue

Cambridge, MA 02138February 1998

This paper has been prepared for the National Bureau of Economic Research conference, TheEconomic Analysis of Substance Use and Abuse: An Integration of Econometric and BehavioralEconomic Research, March 27 and 28, 1997, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The author thanks ChrisRuhm for his helpful comments and Florence Kwan for her excellent research assistance. Anyopinions expressed are those of the author and not those of the National Bureau of EconomicResearch.

© 1998 by Robert Kaestner. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed twoparagraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice,is given to the source.

Does Drug Use Cause Poverty?Robert KaestnerNBER Working Paper No. 6406February 1998

ABSTRACT

In this study, I examine the effect of drug use on poverty. The main objective of the paper

is to provide descriptive empirical information about the relationship between drug use and poverty,

and to explore, in a preliminary fashion, the question of whether drug use causes poverty. Toward

this end, I present the results of both descriptive and multivariate analyses of the relationship between

drug use and poverty for two national samples of young adults. One sample is drawn from the

National Household Survey of Drug Abuse (NHSDA), and the other from the National Longitudinal

Survey of Youth (NLSY). The results of the analysis indicate that for both samples, drug use is

associated with greater poverty.

Robert KaestnerNational Bureau of Economic Research50 East 42nd Street, 17th FloorNew York, NY 10017-5405rjkbb@cunyvm.cuny.edu