Economic Costs - Table 5.12

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The Economic Costs of Alcohol and Drug Abuse in the United States - 1992

Table 5.12

Summary of Estimated Productivity Losses in the Workforce Due to Alcohol and Drug Disorders, 1992

Gender Group	Nature of Impact	Basis for Estimate	Labor Market Status/ Diagnosis	No. of Persons With Loss (in millions)	Size of Impact (percent)	Cost to Society (billions of dollars)
ALCOHOL DISORDERS
Males	Lower wages/ productivity	Regression 5	Employed, ever alcohol dependent - 1^st drink by age 15	2.117	13.1*	23.631
Males	Lower wages/ productivity	Regression 5	Employed, ever alcohol dependent - 1^stdrink after age 14	11.489	4.4*	43.075
Females	No statistically significant impacts
Subtotal, Alcohol				13.569		$66.706
DRUG DISORDERS
Males	Lower wages/ productivity	Regression 5	Employed, ever drug dependent	2.855	9.4*	$10.538
Females	Excess unemployment	Regression 7	Unemployed, ever drug dependent	.136	7.1*	$3.677
Subtotal, Drug Abuse				3.006		$14.205
TOTAL				16.575		$80.911

*These estimates are from the regression analysis above. They were not directly used in development of the cost estimates on this table. A microsimulation technique was employed that estimated expected earnings and/or employment for the alcohol- and drug-dependent populations, respectively, when dependent and not affected by alcohol or drug dependence.

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