Minimum wages and youth binge drinking

Binge drinking is associated with many health problems, including unintentional injuries, intentional injuries (e.g., domestic violence, sexual assault), unintended pregnancy, and liver disease. Moreover, high-volume episodic binge drinking is very prevalent among teenagers and young adults. Given that approximately 90 % of the alcohol consumed by youth under the age of 21 in the USA is in the form of binge drinking (Murphy et al. in Addict Res Theory 20(6):456–465, 2012), understanding the determinants of binge drinking behavior, particularly among youth, is important from the perspective of health and policy. In this paper, we explore the relationship between youth binge drinking and an unanticipated determinate of this behavior, minimum wage laws. Using a fixed effects regression model, we observe a positive relationship between minimum wage increases and binge drinking among teenagers. We find that, after accounting for demographic characteristics, different types of risky behaviors, excise tax, state and time fixed effects, and time-varying state effects, a $1 increase in minimum wage increases binge drinking among teenagers by approximately 9 %. Our results support recent findings that minimum wage increases are positively associated with alcohol-related accidents among teenagers (Adam et al. in Rev Econ Stat 94(3):828–840, 2012). Findings suggest that authorities should consider the unexpected impacts that minimum wage increase may have on alcohol consumption among teens and consider parallel policies to help mitigate potential negative consequences.