Global Production and Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages

The article analyzes the global level of alcohol consumption with the emphasis on pricing and taxation in the industry. The affordability of alcoholic beverages is assessed relative to the average monthly wages by country worldwide.     

Alcohol trade restrictions and alcohol consumption: On the effectiveness of state policy

The paper analyzes the impact of nighttime alcohol trade restrictions in regions of Russia on the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Evaluation has been carried out based on the regional Rosstat data and individual data of the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey by the HSE for 2009–2010. Econometric analysis has revealed a positive correlation between the amount of consumed alcohol and the duration of the allowed time for alcohol sales in the region. In addition, it has been found that night restrictions are more efficient than morning restrictions in the context of a decrease in alcohol consumption. The obtained results indicate the expediency of further tightening of the restrictive policy.     

Broadcast Advertising and U.S. Demand for Alcoholic Beverages

Quarterly data for 1977-1994 on alcohol consumption and advertising are used to estimate a differential demand system, including explanatory variables for broadcast advertising and print advertising. The model explains the growth rate of per capita consumption dependent on explanatory variables for prices, real income, demographic changes, and real advertising by media and beverage. Empirical results also are reported for total consumption of pure alcohol. The results for the three beverages and total alcohol indicate that advertising has little or no effect on demand. The empirical evidence thus supports the notion that regardless of media, advertising affects mainly brand shares.     

Will the consumption tax on sugar-sweetened beverages help promote healthy beverage consumption? Evidence from urban China

The consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in China is rising rapidly and has become a major source of added sugar, which may pose a threat to human health. Intervention policies represented by consumption tax may be introduced to reduce sugar consumption. Few studies have addressed the consumption tax on SSBs in emerging countries like China, where beverage consumption is increasing considerably. Based on the scanner data of Chinese urban households from 2014 to 2017, this paper used the Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) model to estimate the Marshallian (uncompensated) price elasticity of various beverages. We then conducted a simulation of the effect of the consumption tax on the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. The simulation results under different tax rates suggest that the tax on SSBs will significantly reduce the consumption of SSBs and bring about a slight increase in the consumption of diet drinks, thereby promoting beverage consumption in the low-calorie direction. This effect was particularly obvious in low-income groups with a smaller tax burden, unlike the situation in developed countries represented by the U.S. The findings imply that the consumption tax on SSBs is conducive to lowering added sugar intake and, as a result, reducing obesity. China should levy a consumption tax on SSBs and all sugar-sweetened foods in the future. Tax revenue can be used to fund research and development to reduce the production costs of sugar-free foods and encourage healthy eating behavior.     

Employment,Wages, and Alcohol Consumption in Russia

This article investigates the association between alcohol consumption and labor market outcomes in Russia, using data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS). It estimates cross-sectional and fixed effects models of the impacts of alcohol consumption on employment and wages for males and females using three different measures of drinking. The cross-sectional findings indicate that alcohol consumption has an inverse U-shaped impact on employment and wages for females. The impact on males appears to be positive but the inverse-U shape is less pronounced. Once the unobserved individual heterogeneity is accounted for using fixed effects, alcohol consumption is found to have no significant effect on employment for either males or females. The fixed effect wage models indicate that alcohol consumption has a small, positive, but linear impact on the wage rate for both males and females. Models including fixed effects generate estimates that are smaller in magnitude compared with those of cross-sectional models. The findings are robust to several diagnostic checks.     

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.     

Worldwide alcohol production and distribution

Social and economic aspects related to worldwide alcohol production and distribution are studied. The general and unregistered alcohol production and consumption are considered; alcohol-related mortality rates are presented. The methods for the state control of alcohol consumption are assessed and the government policies aimed at improving the current situation in Russia are analyzed.     

Alcohol Prices,Consumption, and Traffic Fatalities

We examine the relationships among alcohol prices, consumption, and traffic fatalities using data across U.S. states from 1982 to 2000. Some previous studies have found large, negative associations between alcohol taxes and fatalities. However, commonly used price data suggest little or no connection between alcohol prices and fatalities. These apparently conflicting findings may result from measurement error and/or endogeneity in the price data, which biases ordinary least squares estimators toward a finding of no price effects. Using alcohol taxes as instrumental variables, fatalities are found to be negatively related to prices. In addition, alcohol consumption is strongly positively related to fatalities. However, biases may still remain, because taxes are not entirely suitable as instruments.     

Cigarette and Alcohol Expenditures in Malaysia: Implications for Anti‐Smoking and Drinking Policies*

A number of studies have examined alcohol and cigarette consumption, but none have explored demand for both products simultaneously even though consumption decisions are likely often related. The present study uses microdata from the 2009/2010 Malaysian Household Expenditure Survey. A novel bivariate Tobit model that accounts for error heteroscedasticity is used to estimate Malaysian consumers' decisions to purchase cigarettes and alcohol and amount spent for each. The results indicate that household income and regional location, and the age, gender, education level and occupation type of the household head are associated with consumption decisions and expenditure levels, with some variation by ethnic group, suggesting the importance of these characteristics in policy deliberations to reduce consumption.     

Alcohol consumption by men in China: A non-Gaussian censored system approach

Consumption of beer, wine and spirits by men in China is investigated, using data from the 2006 China Health and Nutrition Survey. Censoring of consumption levels is accommodated by estimating a censored equation system, using quasi maximum-likelihood and copula methods which allow the specification of non-Gaussian error distributions. Findings suggest that a misspecified error distribution can obscure the effects of explanatory variables on alcohol consumption. The procedure produces very different empirical estimates from a more conventional (Gaussian) estimator. Income does not affect alcohol consumption, with socio-demographic factors such as education, employment, and marital status playing more definitive roles. Regional differences are also found.     

Height and Adult Alcohol Consumption

Previous research has found that shorter men have significantly worse life outcomes than taller men. Using the 1979 version of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this paper uses maximum likelihood estimations to test whether these worse outcomes translate into shorter men drinking more heavily. Results show that, at ages 29–47, taller men are more likely to drink alcohol, but among drinkers, shorter men drink more often and are more likely to binge drink. Among women, there is no significant relationship between height and alcohol consumption. There are different relationships between height and male alcohol consumption according to education level. Among non-college-graduate men, those who were taller in adolescence are more likely to drink alcohol, but among drinkers, shorter men drink more often and are more likely to binge drink. Among college-graduate men, taller men are more likely to drink alcohol and, among drinkers, binge drink more often. Controlling for earnings, education, cognitive ability, and marital status (factors that previous research has found to be correlated with male height) explains some of the relationship between height and alcohol consumption among male non-college-graduates, but not much, and actually intensifies relationships between height and binge drinking among male college graduates. Controlling for late-adolescent drinking behavior does not explain relationships between height and heavier adult drinking, indicating that the relationship between male height and drinking behavior develops in adulthood.

     

Alternative Panel Estimates of Alcohol Demand,Taxation, and the Business Cycle

This paper uses a new technique of estimating dynamic heterogeneous panels developed by Pesaran, Shin, and Smith (1999) on state-level alcohol consumption as a function of income, taxes, and cyclical variables. Pooled mean group (PMG) estimators provide an alternative to extremes of pooling the data assuming slope homogeneity and estimating individual states assuming complete heterogeneity. Postsample tests indicate that a conventional fixed-effects model outperforms both the PMG estimator and individual state estimators, despite the heterogeneity of the sample. Current levels of taxation appear to have little effect on alcohol consumption, and alcohol is found to be a procyclical good.     

ALCOHOL TAXES VS. PREVENTATIVE MEASURES: A THEORETICAL NOTE

The paper assumes that damages in the form of deaths and traumatic injuries caused by alcohol‐related road accidents constitute a significant part of the negative externalities associated with alcohol consumption. It then compares the conventional Pigouvian solution with the impact that a sufficiently high penalty on drunken driving and better law enforcement may have. It is hypothesised that these measures may cause heavy drinkers either to cut back on their consumption of alcohol on occasions when they have to drive a vehicle or to maintain their consumption levels but refrain from driving. The welfare losses are much lower for each of these scenarios and are also carried specifically by those responsible for the negative externality. An attempt is also made to consider how individuals may respond to higher penalties and/or a more effective law enforcement system.     

Beer Taxation and Alcohol-Related Traffic Fatalities

Most studies of alcohol-related traffic fatalities find beer taxes to be an important policy variable. This is surprising since beer taxes only have a small impact on consumption and heavy drinkers are the least responsive to prices. This study shows that the tax relationship is not robust across data periods and that it reflects missing variable biases. While lack of control for law enforcement effort does not appear to bias tax coefficients, failure to include determinants of alcohol consumption other than taxes and drinking age and/or factors that simultaneously determine drinking behavior and political support for alcohol taxes apparently do.     

The relationship between technical efficiency and industrial concentration: Evidence from the Indonesian food and beverages industry

This paper investigates the relationship between technical efficiency and industrial concentration in the Indonesian food and beverages sector. Firm-level data obtained from the Indonesian Bureau of Central Statistics (BPS) are used to estimate technical efficiency scores and calculate measures of industrial concentration. The results show that the food and beverages industry is characterized by high industrial concentration and firms in the industry are inefficient. The Granger-causality test suggests a one-way direction of causality, with industrial concentration having a negative impact on technical efficiency, at the sector level. This suggests that the quiet-life hypothesis, rather than the efficient-structure hypothesis, applies to the Indonesian food and beverages industry.     

Comparing marginal commodity tax reforms in Japan and Korea

We examine the impact of the marginal commodity tax reforms in Japan and Korea, using data from the official household surveys of the two countries. Based on the estimations of two demand systems (linear expenditure system (LES) and almost ideal demand system(AIDS)), we compare the marginal costs of taxing major commodity groups, examine distributive gains from tax reforms based on concentration curves, and assess the impact on poverty based on consumption dominance curves. In particular, we find that revenue-neutral marginal tax reforms incorporating a reduced tax on food and beverages are more likely to face an efficiency–equity trade-off in Korea than in Japan.     

Impact of Casino Gambling and Lotteries on Demand for Other ‘Sin’ Goods

Atlantic Economic Journal - Public policy aimed at reducing consumption of tobacco or alcohol products often results in purchases of lower-taxed alternatives. Many studies find tobacco and alcohol...     

When young soldiers drink: The impact of legal access to alcohol among U.S. Army soldiers

We study the impacts of legal access to alcohol on young U.S. Army soldiers. Regression discontinuity estimates reveal that soldiers report a large and significant increase in alcohol consumption after their 21st birthday; however, we precisely estimate that there are no meaningful impacts of legal access on any of the short-term outcomes we observe, including suicidal tendencies, depression, tobacco use, physical fitness, psychological health, fitness for combat deployment, and job-related infractions. Novel data on soldier's cognitive ability, psychological health, and family history allow us to explore whether the impacts of legal access vary by risk factors for alcohol abuse. While the increases in alcohol consumption were largest among those who had a family history of mental health problems, had better coping ability, and had higher cognitive ability, these subgroups did not uniformly experience adverse behavioral and physical outcomes upon gaining legal access to alcohol.     

挖掘乡村特色餐饮资源 服务社会主义新农村建设

社会主义新农村建设中发展乡村旅游已成为实现小康重要途径之一,特色餐饮是乡村旅游的重要组成部分。本文从乡村旅游的概念出发,定义乡村特色餐饮概念的基础上,分析了乡村旅游中特色餐饮的地位和作用。对特色餐饮的开发原则、方式、提出了一些思路和建议。     

Comparative rate of alcohol consumption in European countries

The article contains a study of the consumption of alcohol in European countries. It contains an analysis of prices and taxes. The rate of excise duties for alcohol collection of the total tax revenues and GDP by European countries has been estimated.