Harrison Silvers

November 4, 2014
ECN 209-B
Dr. Griffith
A Study of the Effects of Alcohol Consumption on Academic Performance in College and
their Implications on the Labor Market
0. Abstract
Many studies have been conducted to analyze the effects of alcohol consumption on the
academic performance of college students. These studies and the results they have produced lead
experts to make the conclusion that there is indeed a cost to drinking in college, which is a
reduction in academic performance measured through a lower grade point average. While
drinking itself cannot be directly attributed as the sole cause of this decline, the indirect effects
are clearly understood to be determinants that would affect academic performance. This report
uses linear multiple regression analysis to further solidify the aforementioned conclusions made
by experts, while also comparing these direct and indirect effects among different races, ages,
genders, and other personal factors. Further, this reduction in college academic success has far
reaching implications on the students later efficiency and performance in the labor market.
I. Introduction
In the context of a college setting, the conclusive results of a negative relationship
between the effects of alcohol consumption on academic performance are unquestionable.
However, it is interesting to note that in a professional setting, those who drink do, in fact, earn
more than those who do not, as observed in countless studies on the subject matter (Peters and
Stringham 2006). Keeping this in mind, the nature of this study becomes much more stimulating
in trying to account for the determining factors of the indirect reduction in collegiate
performance as a result of heavy alcohol consumption.
Numerous studies exist that attempt to explain the nature of this observed negative
correlation. These will be discussed in more detail in the literary review section, but, briefly,
there are many conclusive econometrical analyses showing the negative relationship between

alcohol consumption and grade point average, especially through the depreciation of study effort.
Also, another important study exists relating this correlation to the effect on human capital
accumulation and its further repercussions in the labor market. Based on data from the Harvard
School of Public Healths College Alcohol Study in 2001, this report adds on to the conclusions
and research of the aforementioned studies, as well as examining the direct and indirect effects of
alcohol consumption on academic achievement in regards to different groups of students (i.e.
race, gender, religion, etc.).
Through simple deductive reasoning, the direct effect of drinking on academic
performance and grade point average is emulated through the observed indirect effects, which is
most notably the loss of time spent studying outside of the classroom. Although it is possible to
drink while one studies, the two are usually not synonymous, and, therefore, an increase in the
amount of drinking carries over to a decrease in the amount of time spent studying. It is difficult
to numerically measure the direct effect of alcohol consumption on academic performance
because of the many other variables at hand. Drinking could very well reduce your brain power
and overall mental capacity to perform well in school; and, on the other hand, drinking could
cause a student to not be as stressful and therefore perform better. Regardless, the net direct
effect is observed through the multiple indirect effects including: classes missed as a result of
drinking, if you got behind in work as a result of drinking, and, most notably, loss in time spent
studying. In this analysis, I plan to use multiple regression analysis of a couple models that
measure academic performance and drinking in college to measure these indirect effects in order
to try to help explain the effect of drinking on academic performance in college. Additionally, the
far reaching implications of these habits in college and their effect on your capital stock will be
measured to see if drinking also negatively effects your labor stock.

II. Literature Review

As mentioned before, there exist numerous studies similar to the one being conducted in
this report. The literature on this certain area of study has provided results that are unchanging in
their conclusions. As postulated here, and confirmed through the review of multiple sources, the
net effect of alcohol consumption in college is reflected in a decrease in academic performance
and GPA. In my own research, there are three studies which have provided the necessary
conclusive evidence to make this posit. This report builds on what was accomplished in previous
ones, most notably as a result of the year of the study; the previous ones analyze the College
Alcohol Studies (CAS) in 1993, 1997, and 1999, while this report analyzes the data from the
2001 study.
A report from 2003 on the CAS provided by Williams, Powell, and Wechsler analyzes the
effects of alcohol consumption on human capital accumulation. Essentially students invest in
their human capital by attending university, and that capital is measured through academic
performance and quantified through GPA. This specific study suggests that increased alcohol
consumption both directly and indirectly effects GPA. The direct effects are not so much
quantified as the indirect ones, but their findings suggest that heavy alcohol consumption reduces
the time spent studying, and, therefore, grade point average. The reduction in grade point average
is said to have a large impact on ones future earnings and labor force participation; being that
lower GPAs yield lower future earnings and labor force participation, which shows the
importance of performing well in college and having a high GPA, which lends credence to the
importance of GPA in college (Williams, Powell, and Wechsler 2003). In a very similar study
conducted by the same three researches as the previous one, the effects of alcohol consumption
are measured through reductions in the time spent studying outside of the classroom. These

findings only add to what was done by the researchers previously, and further reaffirm their
conclusions that increased alcohol consumption and decreased study time lead to a net decrease
in academic performance and GPA (Williams, Powell, and Wechsler 2004).
Finally, another similar study analyzing the College Alcohol Study was conducted by
Amy Wolaver. This study confirms that heavy alcohol consumption has both direct and indirect
effects on GPA through the reduction in hours spent studying. According to this report,
simulations show that the effects of heavy drinking on GPA and major choice reduce future
weekly earnings by between 0.3 and 9.8%, (Wolaver 2002).
III. Data and Methods
All of the data collected and used in this study comes from the Harvard School of Public
Healths College Alcohol Study in 2001. This is the most recent data from this specific survey
and area of research, with previous CASs being done in 1993, 1997, and 1999. The cross
sectional data from the 2001 CAS is obtained from the responses of full time undergraduate
students from a total of 119 four year colleges or universities. As stated by the Inter-University
Consortium for Political and Social Research, the methodology of the survey was a random
sample of students using probability proportionate to size sampling of colleges and universities,
and the data was collected via mailed in responses to the questionnaire. Roughly 11,000 students
responded to the survey, which gauged the participants to answer a variety of different personal,
behavioral, and other styles of questions. Technically, the data measures a total of 483 different
variables, but for the purposes of this study, not all of those were used or determined to be
necessary. To provide a scope of the wide range of information collected from these students, a
sample of some of the variables include: daily activities, social life, living arrangements, sexual

activity, views on campus alcohol policies, difficulties caused by drinking, and a number of other
background variables.
The original names of the variables being accounted for in the models used for the
purposes of this paper are labeled VOL30, F5, F6B, miss5, PARDRK, FRATHOUS,
MEMGREEK, ASIAN, AA, HISPANIC, NATIVAM, ATHLETE, SEX, A3, ANYDRUG1, C13,
getbehind, and C20B. VOL30 is the average number of drinks consumed in the last 30 days, with
one drink being any of the following: 12ozs regular beer, 5ozs wine, and 1.5ozs of any distilled
spirits. F5 is the grade point average of the student, and it is valued at 1 through 10, with 10
being no grade received and 1 being an A average, or a 4.0 GPA. We will designate this
variable as academic performance, and for the purposes of this paper if academic performance
increases by one point, then GPA decreases. F6B is the number of hours spent studying outside
of class per day, and it is valued at 0 through 5, with 5 being 5 plus hours of studying and the rest
corresponding with the number (3 equals 3 hours of studying outside of class per day). The
variable miss5 is a dummy variable that measures how many classes a student missed as a
result of drinking. If a student misses class 4 plus times as a result of drinking, it is denoted as a
1, and a 0 for anything less. PARDRK is another dummy variable measuring if your parents
drink or not, with 1 being yes and 0 being no. FRATHOUS is a dummy variable that measures
whether or not you live in a fraternity house, with 1 being yes and 0 being no. MEMGREEK is a
similar dummy variable, but it measures whether or not you are a member of a greek
organization, with 1 being yes and 0 being no. WHITE, ASIAN, AA, HISPANIC, and
NATIVAM are dummy variables that determines the race of the student, with 1 being yes and
zero being no. AA stands for African American and NATIVAM stands for Native American,
Alaskan, or other. ATHLETE is a dummy variable, with 1 being that yes you are an athlete and 0

being that no you are not. SEX is a dummy variable that determines the gender of the student,
with 1 being reported for males and 0 being reported for females. A3 is a measurement of the
year of the student, and the values are measured 1 through 6; with 1 through 4 being freshman
through senior, 5 being a fifth year student, and 6 being a postgraduate student. ANYDRUG1 is a
dummy variable that measures if you have used any type of drug within the past 30 days, with 1
being yes and 0 being no. C13 is a variable that measures how many times within the past 30
days you drank enough to get drunk and it is valued at 1 through 7. The range changes slightly as
you get closer to 7, but 1 is measured as not at all and 7 is measured as 40 or more times.
The variable getbehind is a dummy variable that measures how often your drinking has caused
you to get behind in school work, with 1 being 4 plus times and 0 for anything less. The final
variable C20B, measures the importance of drinking to relax or relieve tension, and it is valued
from 1 to 4, with 1 being very important and 4 being not important at all.
Table 1: Descriptive Statistics of Variable Set
Variable

Mean

Min

Max

Academic Performance

21.0538
6
(38.983
)
3.37913
1
(1.853)

Hours spent studying outside class

2.79197
(1.435)

Miss 4+ classes as result of drinking

0.05814
38
(0.234)

Parents drink

0.60409
02
(0.489)

Average number of drinks in past 30

days

360

10

Live in frat house

0.02469
48
(0.155)

Member of greek life

0.12410
79
(0.330)

Asian

0.07764
21
(0.261)

African American

0.07375
53
(0.261)

Hispanic

0.07724
29
(0.267)

Native American, Alaskan, Other

0.08846
94
(0.284)

Athlete

0.14063
94
(0.348)

Sex
Age

Used any drugs in last 30 days

Got drunk as result of drinking
Get behind in work 4+ times as result
of drinking
Drink to relieve stress
Observations

0.35795
66
(0.479)
2.71554
7
(1.276)
0.18864
77
(0.391)
2.11567
4
(1.156)
0.04668
01
(0.211)
2.85992
3
(0.882)
10904

The table above provides a list of descriptive statistics of each of the variables. Some of
the most notable things to look at are the means of the average number of drinks over the past 30
days, academic performance, and hours spent studying outside of class (the first three,
respectively). The average number of drinks was approximately 21, with a large standard
deviation of about 39, which is to be expected. The average academic performance (GPA) was
approximately somewhere in between the B and B+ range, with a standard deviation of about
one letter grade. The average number of hours spent studying outside of class per day was
approximately 3 hours, with a standard deviation of about 1.5 hours. Most of the other variables
used are dummy variables, so their means measure the percentage of the sample that are in that
group. For example, 12.4% of the students in the survey are a member of Greek life.
As we are estimating data in terms of units over this linear regression, the best method to
use is ordinary least squares estimation. There are two models being measured with OLS, one
that has the average number of drinks over the past 30 days as the dependent variable, and one
that has the grade point average as the dependent variable. For the first model, the equation used
is VOL30= 0 + 1F6B + 2miss5 + 3PARDRK + 4FRATHOUS + 5MEMGREEK + 6AA +
7ASIAN + 8HISPANIC + 9NATIVAM + 10ATHLETE + 11SEX + 12A3 + 13ANYDRUG1.
This specific list of variables was chosen to estimate the average number of drinks over the past
30 days because they seem to be important determinants of drinking, excluding some of the
personal variables like race, which are included to see the effects and compare them to the other
groups. An omitted variable that would have helped in estimating the average number of drinks
over the past 30 days more accurately would be the availability of alcohol to that student, which
should have a positive relationship with drinking, and, therefore, would cause all of the current

variables to be overstated if they are positively correlated with the omitted variable as well. I
expect the drinking variable to have a positive relationship with missed 4 plus classes as a result
of drinking, if your parents drink, if you live in a frat house, if you are a member of greek life, if
you have used and drug in the past 30 days, and the sex variable. It is expected that if you have
missed more than four classes as a result of drinking, your parents drink, you live in a fraternity
house, you are a member of greek life, have used any drug in the past 30 days, or are a male,
then drinking would increase due to the relationship between those variables and alcohol
consumption. In terms of the race variables, I cannot properly predict the signs of the coefficients
because there is no conclusive evidence for me to refer to that any one race drinks more than the
next in college. Hours spent studying (F6B) should be negative because if you spend more hours
studying, then you are less likely to be drinking because some that time is being used studying. If
the student is an athlete it is also expected to be negative because athletes have a lot of time
allotted towards practicing and games, and, therefore, would have less time to drink. A3, the age
component, is also hard to predict because each age group is just as predisposed to drink as the
next, although those who are fifth years or postgraduate students are most likely not drinking as
much because they need to dedicate more time to their work.
For the second model, which has academic performance as the dependent variable, the
equation is F5= 0 + 1VOL30 + 2F6B + 3miss5 + 4getbehind + 5FRATHOUS +
6MEMGREEK + 7AA + 8ASIAN + 9HISPANIC + 10NATIVAM + 11C13 + 12SEX +
13C20B + 14ANYDRUG1. This specific list of variables was chosen to estimate the grade point
average because they seem to be important determinants of ones GPA, including some of the
personal variables like race, which are expected to vary from group to group. For instance, it is
expected that white students would have higher GPAs than any of the other races, so the

relationship would be positive, and for the rest, negative. An omitted variable that would have
helped in estimating GPA more accurately would be the high school GPA or SAT scores of that
student, which should have a positive relationship with GPA because high academic performance
in high school should reflect performance in college. I expect academic performance to have a
positive relationship with if you missed 4 plus classes as a result of drinking, average number of
drinks in the past 30 days, if you have gotten behind in work as a result of drinking 4 plus times,
if you live in a frat house, if you are a member of greek life, if you have used any drugs in the
past 30 days, the sex variable, if you got drunk as a result of drinking, and the race variables.
Again note that for the purposes of this paper academic performance increasing does not indicate
GPA getting higher, but rather lower; so increasing the average number of drinks over the past 30
days will increase academic performance, because the more drinks you have in the past 30 days
should lower your GPA. Also it is expected that if you miss more than 4 classes as a result of
drinking, you live in a fraternity house, you are a member of greek life, have used any drug in the
past 30 days, are a male, got behind in school work as a result of drinking, got drunk in the past
30 days, or are any of the included races, then academic performance would increase (GPA
would decrease) due to the relationship between those variables and academic performance. In
terms of the race variables, historically speaking, Asians perform better in school, so their sign is
expected to be negative (decrease academic performance means increase GPA); and the other
races are expected to be positive. The sign for hours spent studying should be negative because if
you spend more hours studying, then you are more likely to have a higher GPA. Finally I expect
the variable that measures if you drink to relieve tension (C20B) to be negative as well because if
you are getting drunk to relieve the stress from schoolwork, then maybe being stress free will
cause you to perform better and have a higher GPA.

IV. Results
Table 2: Results from GPA and VOL30 OLS Estimation Models
VARIABLES

Average number of drinks

in the last 30 days

Average number of
drinks in last 30 days

0.00196***
(0.000721)

Got drunk as result of

drinking
Miss 4+ classes as
result of drinking
Get behind in work 4+
times as result of
drinking
Live in frat house
Member of greek life
African American
Sex
Hours spent studying
outside class
Asian
Hispanic
Native American,
Alaskan, Other
Used any drugs in last
30 days

Academic Performance

0.0207
(0.0267)
56.02***
(1.419)

0.496***
(0.0959)

7.226***
(2.255)
9.140***
(1.078)
-9.733***
(1.254)
11.02***
(0.679)

0.389***
(0.103)
0.0132
(0.132)
-0.0779
(0.0662)
1.336***
(0.0992)
0.165***
(0.0455)

-1.111***
(0.227)
-9.917***
(1.226)
-1.106
(1.551)

-0.120***
(0.0153)
0.539***
(0.0967)
0.280***
(0.105)

-4.974***
(1.453)

0.437***
(0.100)

24.97***
(0.847)

0.224***
(0.0517)
0.0387
(0.0257)

Drink to relieve stress

Academic Performance
Parents Drink
Athlete
Age
Constant

4.344***
(0.665)
4.346***
(0.931)
0.521**
(0.251)
8.145***
(1.148)

3.216***
(0.106)

Observations
R-squared
Standard errors in brackets
*** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1

10,313
0.305

6,807
0.074

In the model that uses academic performance, or grade point average, as the dependent
variable, the results are for the most part as expected. If you increase the average amount of
drinks consumed in the past 30 days by one, it is expected that academic performance will
increase by 0.002, which coincides with a reduction in GPA. If you increase the amount of times
you got drunk when you were drinking in the past 30 days by one, academic performance is
expected to increase by 0.02. This is a larger reduction in GPA than the previous variable because
it indicates that the student was getting drunk, which is more likely to cause one to lose out on
study time than simply just having a drink in the past 30 days (this could be a beer at lunch, etc.).
If you miss 4 plus classes as a result of drinking, academic performance will increase by 0.5,
which is about a quarter of a point reduction in GPA, as compared to those who missed fewer.
Also if you got behind in school work 4 plus times as a result of drinking, academic performance
will increase by 0.39 as compared to those who recorded fewer. The previous two variables
indicate a definite reduction in GPA for obvious reasons: if you get behind in school work and
miss classes frequently your GPA is likely to decline. If you live in a fraternity house, academic
performance will increase by 0.013 as compared to those who do not, which is expected because
the typical view of fraternity houses is that they are partying and drinking there, which would
reduce academic performance. If you are a member of greek life, academic performance will
decrease by 0.08 as compared to those who do not. This is contrary to what was postulated
earlier in this report that GPA should decrease if you are a member of greek life, which I thought
was because of the same reasons as living in a fraternity house. There are probably various
reasons for this being contrary, but one possible reason is that fraternities and sororities expect

their members to keep a certain GPA to remain an active member, and for some greek
organizations this GPA can be quite high. If you are male, academic performance will increase
by 0.16 as compared to females, which was anticipated because women seem to perform better
than men in school. If you increase the hours spent studying outside of class by one, then
academic performance is expected to decrease by 0.12, which corresponds to an increase in GPA
because more time spent studying usually provides higher returns to GPA. If you are Asian,
academic performance is expected to increase by 0.54 as compared to white students, which is
also contrary to what I predicted would happen before which is that Asian students would have
higher GPAs. If you are African American, academic performance is expected to increase by 1.3
as compared to white students. This number is very large and corresponds to almost an entire
letter grade reduction in GPA. If you are Hispanic, academic performance will increase by 0.28
as compared to white students. If you are Native American, Alaskan, or other, academic
performance is expected to increase by 0.44 as compared to white students. The previous three
variables are in line with what was expected to happen, however there is no way to qualify these
variables other than that history shows these students perform worse. If you have used any drug
within the past 30 days, academic performance is expected to increase by 0.22, which makes
sense in that the cost of using drugs is also study time, and, therefore, lost study time reduces
GPA. Finally, if the importance to you of drinking to relieve stress goes up by one, which
corresponds to it being less important, then academic performance is expected to increase by
0.039. This is in line with what was predicted because those who drink to relieve stress may see
positive returns to GPA as a result of the net reduced stress.
For this model, some of the most statistically significant variables at the 99% level of
confidence, as determined by their very low p-values include: average number of drinks over the

past 30 days, if youve missed 4 or more classes as a result of drinking, if you have gotten behind
in school work 4 or more times as a result of drinking, the race and gender variables, hours spent
studying and if you have used any drugs in the past 30 days.
In the model that uses VOL30, or average number of drinks consumed in the past 30
days, as the dependent variable, the results are for the most part as expected as well. If your
parents drink, the average volume of drinks is expected to increase by 4.34, as compared to those
whose parents do not. The logic behind this is that if your parents drink, you think it is more
acceptable to drink and therefore do so more often. If you miss 4 plus classes as a result of
drinking, the average volume of drinks will increase by 56.02, which is a significantly large
increase because those missing classes as a result of drinking are clearly drinking a lot. Also if
you are an athlete, the average volume of drinks will increase by 4.35 as compared to those who
are not, which is contrary to what I believed in that athletes would have less time to consume
alcohol. An explanation for this could be that maybe when they are allowed to drink, they binge
drink and therefore consume more in a 30 day period. If you live in a fraternity house, the
average volume of drinks will increase by 7.23 as compared to those who do not. If you are a
member of greek life, the average volume of drinks will increase by 9.14 as compared to those
who are not. The previous two changes are as expected because those who are in greek life and
actually live in the fraternity house are expected to drink more due to the culture of fraternity
life. If you are male, the average volume of drinks will increase by 11.02 as compared to
females, which was anticipated because men typically drink more than women, due simply to
human physiology. If you increase the hours spent studying outside of class by one, then the
average volume of drinks is expected to decrease by 1.11 because more time spent studying
means less time allocated to drink. If you are African American, the average volume of drinks is

expected to decrease by 9.73 as compared to white students. If you are Asian, the average
volume of drinks is expected to decrease by 9.92 as compared to white students. If you are
Hispanic, the average volume of drinks will decrease by 1.11 as compared to white students. If
you are Native American, Alaskan, or other, the average volume of drinks is expected to decrease
by 4.97 as compared to white students. Observing the effects of race on drinking, it is interesting
to note that Hispanics, African Americans, Asians, and those who fall under the category of
NATIVAM drank fewer drinks than the white students. As I mentioned earlier, there is no clear
reason as to why one race of students in college would drink more than the other, so these
occurrences cannot be explained due to the lack of research on the area. If you have used any
drug within the past 30 days, the average volume of drinks is expected to increase by 24.97,
which makes sense due to the high correlation between drug use and alcohol consumption.
Finally, if your year in school (A3) goes up by one, then the average volume of drinks is
expected to increase by 0.52. This is contrary to what I had predicted, which is that as you get
older you would drink less due to school becoming more serious and your workload increasing;
although an increase of 0.52 more drinks per month is hardly much of a change at all. However,
a possible explanation for this occurrence most likely has to do with the fact that as you get older
and alcohol becomes more accessible to you, then you are more likely to consume more alcohol
in the average 30 day period.
For this model, the most statistically significant variables at the 99% level of confidence,
once again as determined by extremely low p-values, include all of the variables except for the
age variable and the Hispanic variable.
V. Conclusion

Already confirmed by most studies, there is a clearly a negative effect of alcohol

consumption on academic performance, as reported through reduction in grade point average.
Through the statistical models used in this report to analyze certain variables effects on both the
average number of drinks consumed in the past 30 days as well as students academic
performance, the results are unchanging. By using these two estimation models, the observed
direct and indirect effects of drinking on GPA are confirmed to be negative. Time spent
consuming alcohol most logically reduces the amount of time spent studying outside of class
because both take time to do, so doing one reduces the ability to do more of the other. Through
this reduction in the amount of time spent studying, the effects continue on over to missing
multiple classes and getting behind in school work as a result of drinking. The net effect of these
indirect effects on academic performance and GPA is also negative overall. Those who are
missing classes, getting behind in work, and, most importantly, spending less time studying are
undoubtedly going to face negative repercussions in GPA.
The real question now is what does all of this mean? As analyzed through the study
conducted by Williams, Powell, and Wechsler, the overall reduction in GPA is a reduction in
human capital stock. The consequences of heavy alcohol consumption are reflected in ones
GPA, which is a large component of accumulated human capital stock, which you are investing
in by attending a college or university. This reduction in ones accumulated capital stock has
implications that are reflected in the labor market. Previous studies have concluded that higher
GPAs yield higher future earnings (Jones and Jackson 1990). So, this reduction in your human
capital stock has far reaching consequences which are reflected in lower earnings as well as
lower, or less efficient, participation in the labor force (Williams, Powell, and Wechsler 2003).
This report has developed on these findings through the use of different variables in the model,

most notably the amount of classes missed and getting behind in school work. While they
provide no new information that will change the conclusions drawn by experts before, they
clearly bolster what has already been confirmed.
VI. References
Jones, Ethel B., and John D. Jackson. College Grades and Labor Market Rewards. The Journal
of Human Resources 25.2 (1990): 253-66. JSTOR. Web.
Peters, Bethany L., and Edward Stringham. No Booze? You May Lose: Why Drinkers Earn
More Money than Nondrinkers. Journal of Labor Research 27.3 (2006): 411-21. Web.
Powell, Lisa M., Jenny Williams, and Henry Wechsler. 2004. Study Habits and the Level of
Alcohol Use among College Students. Education Economics 12, no. 2: 135-149.
EconLit, EBSCOhost.
Williams, Jenny, Lisa M. Powell, and Henry Wechsler. 2003. Does Alcohol Consumption
Reduce Human Capital Accumulation? Evidence from the College Alcohol Study.
Applied Economics 35, no. 10: 1227-1239. EconLit, EBSCOhost.
Wolaver, Amy M. 2002. Effects of Heavy Drinking in College on Study Effort, Grade Point
Average, and Major Choice. Contemporary Economic Policy 20, no. 4: 415-428.
EconLit, EBSCOhost.