Insights into alcohol consumption: does educational mismatch affect drinking behaviors in Russia?

Abstract

Our study innovates over the previous literature on socioeconomic determinants of drinking behaviours by investigating the impact of horizontal educational mismatch (field of schooling not matching with the job) on alcohol consumption. We conduct a longitudinal gender-specific analysis on individual data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS-HSE) (2011-2014) and estimate correlated random effects probit for alcohol use controlling for state dependence. Our results indicate that educational mismatch is related to drinking behaviors in Russia; in particular, horizontal mismatch tends to trigger alcohol consumption in women, while it increases the probability of becoming a heavy drinker for men.