Tuition and Drink Selection

Maybe if college wasn’t so expensive, we wouldn’t have to try to get a six-pack of beer from one three dollar can.

From a Towson Student defending the drinkers of four loko a 12% alcohol beverage with lots of caffeine too.

Doing a quick literature search I could not find any evidence that increasing college tuition changed students drinking habits. I did find this paper by Benjamin Cowan that suggests that high school students engage in less risky behavior if college tuition is lower from his article. Although I don't know Benjamin he did get his PhD from Wisconsin Madison, so I'm going to assume he has observed people drinking.

From his abstract: "Specifically, a $1,000 reduction in tuition and fees at two-year colleges in a youth's state of residence (roughly a 50% difference at the mean) is associated with a decline in the number of sexual partners the youth had in the past year (by 26%), the number of days in the past month the youth smoked (by 14%), and the number of days in the past month the youth used marijuana (by 23%)."

So maybe this four loko drinker is on to something.