Abstract:

The good health of an individual is a combination of uncontrollable factors that includes genetics and random events and controllable factors through the regulation of activities such as smoking and drinking. Since the work of Grossman in the 1970s, a significant relationship between health and earnings has been predicted. In this present paper the 1995 Australian National Health Survey is used to examine simultaneously the effects of drinking and smoking on wages. To model the interaction of smoking with alcohol consumption separate models are fitted for smokers and nonsmokers. These models account for potential selectivity bias resulting from the decision to smoke, and endogeneity arising from a potential causal relationship between earnings and alcohol consumption.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1080/00036840410001710645