Drinking is Different! Examining the Role of Locus of Control for Alcohol Consumption

No 1088, SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research from DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

Abstract: Unhealthy behavior can be extremely costly from a micro- and macroeconomic perspective and exploring the determinants of such behavior is highly important from an economist’s point of view. We examine whether locus of control (LOC) can explain alcohol consumption as an important domain of health behavior. LOC measures how much an individual believes in the causal relationship between her own actions and her life’s outcomes. While earlier literature showed that an increasing internal LOC is associated with increased health-conscious behavior in domains such as smoking, exercise or diets, we ﬁnd that drinking seems to be different. Using German panel data, we ﬁnd a signiﬁcant positive effect of having an internal LOC on the probability of moderate and regular drinking. We discuss two likely mechanisms for this relationship and ﬁnd interesting gender differences. While social investments play an important role for men and women, risk perceptions are especially relevant for men.

Keywords: locus of control; alcohol consumption; health behavior; risk perception; social investment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 p.
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-neu
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Drinking is different! Examining the role of locus of control for alcohol consumption (2022)
Working Paper: Drinking Is Different! Examining the Role of Locus of Control for Alcohol Consumption (2020)
Working Paper: Drinking is Different! Examining the Role of Locus of Control for Alcohol Consumption (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp1088

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