Taking Chances: The Effect of Growing Up on Welfare on the Risky Behaviour of Young People

Deborah Cobb-Clark, Christopher Ryan and Ana Sartbayeva

No 604, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University

Abstract: We analyze the effect of growing up on welfare on young people’s involvement in a variety of social and health risks. Young people in welfare families are much more likely to take both social and health risks. Much of the apparent link between family welfare history and risk taking disappears, however, once we account for family structure and mothers’ decisions regarding their own risk taking and investment in their children. Interestingly, we find no significant effect of socio-economic status per se. Overall, we find no evidence that growing up on welfare causes young people to engage in risky behavior.

Keywords: youths; welfare; risky behaviour; socio-economic disadvantage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I38 J13 J18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: Taking Chances: The Effect of Growing Up on Welfare on the Risky Behavior of Young People (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:auu:dpaper:604

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