@techreport{NBERw16330, title = "Does Drinking Impair College Performance? Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Approach", author = "Scott E. Carrell and Mark Hoekstra and James E. West", institution = "National Bureau of Economic Research", type = "Working Paper", series = "Working Paper Series", number = "16330", year = "2010", month = "September", doi = {10.3386/w16330}, URL = "http://www.nber.org/papers/w16330", abstract = {This paper examines the effect of alcohol consumption on student achievement. To do so, we exploit the discontinuity in drinking at age 21 at a college in which the minimum legal drinking age is strictly enforced. We find that drinking causes significant reductions in academic performance, particularly for the highest-performing students. This suggests that the negative consequences of alcohol consumption extend beyond the narrow segment of the population at risk of more severe, low-frequency, outcomes.}, }