Does Marijuana Use Impair Human Capital Formation?

Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, Jeanne S. Ringel, Karen E. Ross

Published Dec 21, 2004

In this paper we examine the relationship between marijuana use and human capital formation by examining performance on standardized tests among a nationally representative sample of youths from the National Education Longitudinal Survey. We find that much of the negative association between cross-sectional measures of marijuana use and cognitive ability appears to be attenuated by individual differences in school attachment and general deviance. However, difference-indifference estimates examining changes in test scores across 10th and 12th grade reveal that marijuana use remains statistically associated with a 15% reduction in performance on standardized math tests.

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Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo, Jeanne S. Ringel, and Karen E. Ross, Does Marijuana Use Impair Human Capital Formation? RAND Corporation, WR-121, 2004. As of October 10, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR121.html
Chicago Manual of Style
Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo, Jeanne S. Ringel, and Karen E. Ross, Does Marijuana Use Impair Human Capital Formation? Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2004. https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR121.html.
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