TY - JOUR
T1 - To test or not to test
T2 - Do workplace drug testing programs discourage employee drug use?
AU - French, Michael T.
AU - Roebuck, Christopher
AU - Alexandre, Pierre Kébreau
N1 - Funding Information:
Financial assistance for this study was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Grant No. 035152). Sara Markowitz, Kathryn McCollister, Kerry Anne McGeary, Helena Salomé, Silvana Zavala, two anonymous reviewers, and participants at the 2001 American Public Health Association conference, the 2001 Western Economic Association conference, the 2000 Pacific Rim Allied Economics Association conference, and the labor seminar series at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, provided helpful suggestions on earlier versions of the paper. Carmen Martinez, Suzanne Gresle, and William Russell offered excellent administrative support. This research was initiated while Michael French was a faculty member in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Miami.
PY - 2004/3
Y1 - 2004/3
N2 - Workplace drug testing programs are often met with intense criticism. Despite resistance among labor and consumer groups and a lack of rigorous empirical evidence regarding effectiveness, drug testing programs have remained popular with employers throughout the 1990s and into the current century. The present study analyzed nationally representative data on over 15,000 US households to determine whether various types of workplace drug testing programs influenced the probability of drug use by workers. The study estimated several empirical specifications using both univariate and bivariate probit techniques. The specification tests favored the bivariate probit model over the univariate probit model. Estimated marginal effects of drug testing on any drug use were negative, significant, and relatively large, indicating that drug testing programs are achieving one of the desired effects. The results were similar when any drug use was replaced with chronic drug use in the models. These results have important policy implications regarding the effectiveness and economic viability of workplace anti-drug programs.
AB - Workplace drug testing programs are often met with intense criticism. Despite resistance among labor and consumer groups and a lack of rigorous empirical evidence regarding effectiveness, drug testing programs have remained popular with employers throughout the 1990s and into the current century. The present study analyzed nationally representative data on over 15,000 US households to determine whether various types of workplace drug testing programs influenced the probability of drug use by workers. The study estimated several empirical specifications using both univariate and bivariate probit techniques. The specification tests favored the bivariate probit model over the univariate probit model. Estimated marginal effects of drug testing on any drug use were negative, significant, and relatively large, indicating that drug testing programs are achieving one of the desired effects. The results were similar when any drug use was replaced with chronic drug use in the models. These results have important policy implications regarding the effectiveness and economic viability of workplace anti-drug programs.
KW - Drug testing
KW - Employee drug use
KW - Workplace programs
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U2 - 10.1016/S0049-089X(03)00038-3
DO - 10.1016/S0049-089X(03)00038-3
M3 - Article
C2 - 15025064
AN - SCOPUS:1342306397
VL - 33
SP - 45
EP - 63
JO - Social Science Research
JF - Social Science Research
SN - 0049-089X
IS - 1
ER -