Causality between Youth Employment and Problem Behavior

描述(由申请者提供)：在高中期间工作时间较长的年轻人往往有更高的犯罪率和药物使用率，以及其他问题行为。根据这项研究和其他研究表明，在高中期间大量工作会产生不良后果，国家研究理事会(1998)呼吁政策制定者对16岁和17岁的青少年每周工作时数作出更严格的限制。然而，最近的实证研究表明，由于不注意未观察到的异质性来源，可能会出现严重的偏差。 在这个研究项目中，我们建议利用一个具有全国代表性的青年小组的两个独特特点。首先，由于对受访者进行了为期五年的跟踪调查，我们使用固定效应面板估计器来调整相关的时间不变特征的遗漏。其次，我们利用了各州在童工法律的限制性方面的不同，以及这些童工法律随着年龄的增长而变得不那么严格的事实。所得到的模型基于固定效应工具变量(FEIV)估计器。在这个模型中，“工作强度效应”的确定是基于个人在学年工作时间的外生变化，这可以归因于随着青少年年龄的增长而放松对童工的限制，因为他们不再是未成年人。FEIV模型特别有力地检验了这一论点，即学年期间的密集就业与卷入问题行为之间存在因果关系。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Youths who work longer hours during high school tend to have higher rates of crime and substance use, among other problem behaviors. On the basis of this and other research demonstrating the adverse consequences of an extensive work commitment during high school, the National Research Council (1998) has called for policymakers to establish stricter limits on the number of hours per week that 16 and 17 year olds may work. However, recent empirical research demonstrates the possibility of severe bias due to inattention to unobserved sources of heterogeneity. In this research project, we propose taking advantage of two unique characteristics of a nationally representative panel of youths. First, since respondents are followed over a period of five years, we use a fixed effects panel estimator to adjust for the omission of relevant time-invariant characteristics. Second, we exploit state-to-state variation in the restrictiveness of child labor laws, and the fact that these child labor laws become less restrictive with increasing age. The resulting model is based on a fixed-effects instrumental variables (FEIV) estimator. In this model, identification of the "work intensity effect" is predicated on exogenous within-individual change in school-year work hours that can be attributed to the easing of child labor restrictions as youths age out of their legal status as minors. The FEIV model provides an especially powerful test of the thesis that intensive employment during the school year is causally related to involvement in problem behavior.