Further evidence about alcohol consumption and the business cycle∗
نویسندگان
چکیده
The main goal of this paper is to test whether macroeconomic conditions affect alcohol consumption using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for the period 1987–2008. While previous evidence have used pooled cross-section data and rich specifications controlling observed heterogeneity, we feel that both state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity can help in explaining individuals’ behavior. We control for both effects by relying on the construction of pseudo-panel data from the different cross-sections available in the survey. Our results contain three messages. First, unemployment rates have significant effects on becoming drinker and the number of alcoholic beverages consumed but their cyclical or countercyclical effects depend very much on the period under consideration. Second, once unobserved effects and the dynamic nature of the demand models are accounted for, we do not detect business cycle effects independently of the period. Third, we feel that a methodological implication can also be inferred from our results: the importance of taking into account the nature of the zeros when estimating demand models for this good. As a result, inferences obtained without controlling for them should be interpreted with caution. JEL-CLASS: E23, I12
منابع مشابه
Pattern of Alcohol Consumption among Men Consumers in Kerman, Iran, in 2014
Background: Alcohol consumption is a potential risk factor with acute and chronic health consequences and social impacts, which is more prominent among men. There is no precise statistics on the scope of alcohol consumption in Iran; however, there is some evidences showing an increasing trend, particularly among young generation. In order to evaluate the scope of this issue in Kerman, a large c...
متن کاملInternational Health Problems Related to Alcohol Abuse
The harmful use of alcohol inflicts great deal of social and economic losses on individuals and societies. Given the increase in world population and the predicted increase in alcohol consumption, the alcohol related burden of disease progressively catches higher ranks in the list of factors threatening humans' life. It has been considered that the social and economic burden related to alcohol ...
متن کاملWomen, alcohol and the menstrual cycle.
This review presents evidence which implicates a role for menstrual cycle phase in the response of pre-menopausal women to moderate alcohol intake. It is concluded that the majority of published studies have suffered from poor methodological design and have employed inadequate means of cycle phase identification. Contradictory and ill-founded findings have been reported. The best evidence to da...
متن کاملA Review of Alcohol-Related Harms: A Recent Update
In the early decades of the 20th century, discussions regarding alcohol were dominantly directed toward itstherapeutic uses, but authorities now state that any level of alcohol consumption poses negative effects onhealth. Over recent months, increased attention has been devoted to disease burdens attributable to alcoholuse worldwide. As more...
متن کامل