Code for: Minimum Legal Drinking Age and Educational Outcomes

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Manuel Bagues, University of Warwick; Carmen Villa, University of Zurich

Version:  View help for Version V2

Name File Type Size Last Modified
replication_icpsr.zip application/zip 1.9 MB 11/05/2025 05:13:AM

Project Citation: 

Bagues, Manuel, and Villa, Carmen. Code for: Minimum Legal Drinking Age and Educational Outcomes. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-11-05. https://doi.org/10.3886/E239703V2

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary We provide the replication code for the paper titled "Minimum Legal Drinking Age and Educational Outcomes". In this paper, we study the impact of raising the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) from 16 to 18 on adolescent outcomes in Spain. We exploit the staggered timing of these reforms across Spanish regions to identify causal effects. We find that MLDA increases reduced alcohol consumption among 14-17 year-olds by 7 to 17%, improved exam performance by 4% of a standard deviation, and decreased the use of anxiolytics and hypnosedatives by 10%. These results suggest that reducing teenage alcohol access can significantly improve educational outcomes and mental health. The replication package includes all code necessary to reproduce the tables and figures in the paper. While the raw data are subject to confidentiality restrictions and cannot be redistributed in this package, all datasets can be obtained directly from the original providers following the detailed access procedures documented below.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms pisa; alcohol consumption; minimum legal drinking age; adolescence
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage Spain
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 2004 – 2021
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) census/enumeration data; survey data

Methodology

Data Source:  View help for Data Source The main analysis uses three data sources:
  1. High School Survey on Drug Use in Spain (ESTUDES) from the Spanish Observatory on Drugs and Addictions (2004-2021)
  2. Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data from the OECD (2003-2022)
  3. 2021 Census microdata from the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE)
Unit(s) of Observation:  View help for Unit(s) of Observation individual

Related Publications

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Published Versions

V2 [2025-11-05]

V1 [2025-11-05]

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This material is distributed exactly as it arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR has not checked or processed this material. Users should consult the investigator(s) if further information is desired.