(More) Party Time in School? Relative Age and Alcohol Consumption

Abstract

Slightly missing a school cutoff date, and a student's relative age in their cohort, have been shown in to have important effects. For example, a student's relative age appears related to academic performance in both primary and secondary school, though how far into life relative age effects persist remains an open question. We make use of a nationwide sample of over 80,000 undergraduate students from over 600 U.S. institutions of higher education to see if relative age is related to alcohol consumption and time spent partying during college tenure. State cutoff date laws for kindergarten enrollment result in some undergraduate students reaching the legal drinking age up to a full year before others in their cohort. Results suggest students of older relative ages generally drink less alcohol than their peers during undergraduate tenure, implying the maturity effect of an older age is stronger than the legal deterrence effect. These results appear robust to alcohol type (beer, wine, and liquor), time spent at parties, and a significant list of control variables including historical alcohol consumption and partying behavior. In a secondary analysis, relative age appears to have the same negative relationship with high school drinking and partying habits.