The Price of Alcohol,Wife Abuse,and Husband Abuse

Alcohol consumption has been frequently linked to violence. This paper examines the direct relationship between the price of alcohol, which determines consumption, and violence toward husbands and wives. The data come from the 1985 cross section and the 1985-1987 panel of the National Family Violence Survey. A reduced form violence equation is estimated, and individual-level fixed effects are used to control for unobserved characteristics in the panel. Results indicate that an increase in the price of pure alcohol, as measured by a weighted average of the price of alcohol from beer, wine, and liquor, will reduce violence aimed at wives. The evidence on the propensity of an increase in the price of alcohol to lower violence toward husbands is mixed.