Effects of Alcohol Taxes on Alcohol‐Related Mortality in Florida: Time‐Series Analyses From 1969 to 2004

Background: Over a hundred studies have established the effects of beverage alcohol taxes and prices on sales and drinking behaviors. Yet, relatively few studies have examined effects of alcohol taxes on alcohol‐related mortality. We evaluated effects of multiple changes in alcohol tax rates in the state of Florida from 1969 to 2004 on disease (not injury) mortality. Methods: A time‐series quasi‐experimental research design was used, including nonalcohol deaths within Florida and other states’ rates of alcohol‐related mortality for comparison. A total of 432 monthly observations of mortality in Florida were examined over the 36‐year period. Analyses included ARIMA, fixed‐effects, and random‐effects models, including a noise model, tax independent variables, and structural covariates. Results: We found significant reductions in mortality related to chronic heavy alcohol consumption following legislatively induced increases in alcohol taxes in Florida. The frequency of deaths (t = ?2.73, p = 0.007) and the rate per population (t = ?2.06, p = 0.04) declined significantly. The elasticity effect estimate is ?0.22 (t = ?1.88, p = 0.06), indicating a 10% increase in tax is associated with a 2.2% decline in deaths. Conclusions: Increased alcohol taxes are associated with significant and sizable reductions in alcohol‐attributable mortality in Florida. Results indicate that 600 to 800 lives per year could be saved if real tax rates were returned to 1983 levels (when the last tax increase occurred). Findings highlight the role of tax policy as an effective means for reducing deaths associated with chronic heavy alcohol use.     

Alcohol prices, beverage quality, and the demand for alcohol: quality substitutions and price elasticities

BACKGROUND: Although the published literature on alcohol beverage taxes, prices, sales, and related problems treats alcoholic beverages as a simple good, alcohol is a complex good composed of different beverage types (i.e., beer, wine, and spirits) and quality brands (e.g., high-, medium-, and low-quality beers). As a complex good, consumers may make substitutions between purchases of different beverage types and brands in response to price increases. For this reason, the availability of a broad range of beverage prices provides opportunities for consumers to mitigate the effects of average price increases through quality substitutions; a change in beverage choice in response to price increases to maintain consumption. METHODS: Using Swedish price and sales data provided by Systembolaget for the years 1984 through 1994, this study assessed the relationships between alcohol beverage prices, beverage quality, and alcohol sales. The study examined price effects on alcohol consumption using seemingly unrelated regression equations to model the impacts of price increases within 9 empirically defined quality classes across beverage types. The models enabled statistical assessments of both own-price and cross-price effects between types and classes. RESULTS: The results of these analyses showed that consumers respond to price increases by altering their total consumption and by varying their brand choices. Significant reductions in sales were observed in response to price increases, but these effects were mitigated by significant substitutions between quality classes. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that the net impacts of purposeful price policy to reduce consumption will depend on how such policies affect the range of prices across beverage brands.     

The Relationship of Outlet Densities to Alcohol Consumption: A Time Series Cross-Sectional Analysis

The implementation of regulations on access to alcoholic beverages, whether through beverage taxes or restrictions on the availability of this commodity through alcohol outlets, has often been proposed as a legitimate and politically feasible approach to the prevention of alcohol-related problems. Empirical studies of the effects of these approaches to regulation on alcohol consumption and problems, however, have not been unanimous in their support of these preventive measures. While support exists for the suggestion that increases in alcohol beverage prices reduce consumption and have preventive effects upon the occurrence of problems, relatively little evidence exists for the supposition that the regulation of alcohol availability will have similar preventive effects. The lack of evidence in support of the latter thesis rests primarily upon the difficulty of obtaining sufficient data to examine comprehensive models of access to alcohol.
The current paper analyzes aggregate time series cross-sectional data from states of the U.S. to evaluate the relationships between alcohol beverage prices, availability, and alcohol sales within one analytic model. The model relates beverage prices and alcohol availability directly to alcohol sales in the context of an assumed simultaneous relationship between sales and availability. The results show that, independent of the effects of beverage prices, and controlling for the endogeneity of sales and availability, physical availability of alcohol was directly related to sales of spirits and wine.     

Alcohol and liver, 2010

Liver is known as an organ that is primarily affected by alcohol. Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is the cause of an increased morbidity and mortality worldwide. Progression of ALD is driven by “second hits“. These second hits include the complex of nutritional, pharmacological, genetic and viral factors, which aggravate liver pathology. However, in addition to liver failure, ethanol causes damage to other organs and systems. These extrahepatic manifestations are regulated via the similar hepatitis mechanisms...