Demand for Alcohol Consumption in Russia and Its Implication for Mortality

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Yakovlev, Evgeny
• 署名单位: New Economic School
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20130170
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 106-149
• 关键词: EMPIRICAL-ANALYSIS; Discount rates; models; drinking; CHOICE; determinants; estimators; addiction; price

摘要

Alcohol abuse is widely blamed for the very high rate of male mortality in Russia. I estimate a structural model of the demand for alcohol that incorporates two features of alcohol consumption, peer effects and habits. I use a kink in the policy regime of the excise tax on alcohol and regional variation in alcohol regulations to estimate a price elasticity of demand for alcohol. I find that peer influence and habits are critical determinants of the response of alcohol demand to price changes. The estimates imply that increases in alcohol prices would yield significant reductions in mortality.