Human development and alcohol abuse in adolescence

The aim of this article is to analyse the development of human capital in adolescents, as represented by their state of health and educational attainment, when this capital is affected by the abusive consumption of alcohol measured by grams of ethanol. To that end, we adopt a theoretical framework derived from the Model of Rational Addiction, the Model of Health Demand and the Model of Schooling Demand, which is then estimated by using data drawn from the Spanish National Survey on Drug Use in the School Population (1996, 1998, 2000). Results confirm that higher alcohol consumption leads to worse health states and lower academic efficiency among adolescents, which suggests the need to implement effective policies aimed at reducing alcohol abuse among this population group.