The Effect of the Minimum Drinking Age on Tobacco Use

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of the minimum drinking age on the prevalence of smoking participation of adolescents. Data were extracted from the 2005-2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Results indicate that granting legal access to alcohol at age 21 leads to increases in the prevalence of the smoking initiation, the smoking participation, and the smoking intensity for adolescents. In particular, legal allowance of alcohol consumption at 21 years old leads to 11.2 percent point increases in the rate of smoking 100 or more cigarettes in life time’, 9.24 percent point increases in the rate of `smoking at present’, and 11.6 percent point increases in the rate of `smoking in everyday at present’. These findings provide empirical evidence to support the existence of complementary effects between smoking and drinking behaviors of adolescents.