The Effects of Employer Drug Testing on Labor Market Outcomes

Publication Date

2-23-2010

Grant Type

Early Career Research Award

Description

In the 1980’s, U.S. employers began requiring drug tests of their employees and job applicants on a large scale. While this increase in testing represents a large intervention into the U.S. labor market, the effects of this intervention had not yet been evaluated on a market-wide scale. This study examines the impact of widespread employer drug testing from the perspective of the labor market as a whole. It analyzes whether testing changed the sort of drug users and non-users across sectors of employment, and whether testing itself altered relative labor market outcomes. Data from the Current Population Survey spanning 1980 – 1999 are used.

Grant Product

Discrimination and the Effects of Drug Testing on Black Employment
The Review of Economics and Statistics 97(3):548-566 (July 2015)

Discrimination and the Effects of Drug Testing on Black Employment
Upjohn Institute Working Paper No. 13-195, 2013

Discrimination and the Effects of Drug Testing on Black Employment
IZA Discussion Paper No. 6605, 2012

Discrimination and the Effects of Drug Testing on Black Employment
National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 20095, 2014

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