RAND working papers are intended to share researchers' latest findings and to solicit informal peer review. They have been approved for circulation by RAND Labor and Population but have not been formally edited or peer reviewed. Unless otherwise indicated, working papers can be quoted and cited without permission of the author, provided the source is clearly referred to as a working paper. RAND...

This special issue had its origins in a symposium arranged for the Ninth International Congress on Twin Studies, held in Helsinki, June 1998. The symposium consisted of six submitted or solicited papers that used twin comparisons to examine transitions in substance use and abuse across time, gender, and culture. It was well received, and before the Congress ended, plans were formulated to turn ...

OBJECTIVES A majority of population-based studies suggest prevalence of drug and alcohol risk behaviour increases during late adolescence to early adulthood. The purpose of this systematic literature review is to clarify if socio-economic status (SES) is a determinant of marijuana and alcohol risk behaviour in adolescents between the ages of 10-15 years. METHODS We performed a meta-analysis t...

OBJECTIVES Obesity is one of the most serious health problems in the world today. Asian Americans are usually less overweight and obese than African Americans and Hispanic Americans, but the rate of obesity in Asian Americans is still increasing, especially in younger generations. This research examines Asian American obesity using existing research, as a means of finding the need for greater e...

I t is a common observation of dairymen that the milk flow of the dairy cow rises for some time after calving and then declines steadily. In preceding papers 1 we have presented data and have offered an interpretation for the declining segment of the curve of milk secretion. Having found that after the first month of lactation the curve of milk secretion with the advance of the period of lactat...

The papers in this special issue address a major challenge facing our society: feeding a population that is simultaneously growing and increasing its per capita food consumption, while preventing widespread ecological and social impoverishment in the tropics. By focusing mostly on the Amazon's most dynamic agricultural frontier, Mato Grosso, they collectively clarify some key elements of achiev...

OBJECTIVE We reviewed the scientific background for the current health-based World Health Organization (WHO) guideline value for manganese in drinking water. DATA SOURCES AND EXTRACTION The initial starting point was the background document for the development of the WHO's guideline value for manganese in drinking water as well as other regulations and recommendations on manganese intake leve...

This paper estimates the impact of parental alcohol consumption on child health by taking advantage of a unique shock to alcohol supply: the 1985 to 1988 alcohol prohibition campaign in Russia. This campaign was temporally short lived, and resulted in large amounts of exogenous geographic variation in its intensity and effectiveness. I construct a new data set that combines the Russian Longitud...

Tobacco and Alcohol: Complements or Substitutes? A Structural Model Approach The question of whether two drugs – namely alcohol and tobacco – are used as complements or substitutes is of crucial interest if side-effects of anti-smoking policies are considered. Numerous papers have empirically addressed this issue by estimating demand systems for alcohol and tobacco and subsequently calculating ...

College campuses in the United States may be the most electronically "wired" environments on earth. College students use the Internet not only to write term papers and receive correspondence but also to report (and keep track of) friends' personal status, download music, view classroom lectures, and receive emergency messages. In fact, college students spend considerably more time online than t...