Pryce, R. orcid.org/0000-0002-4853-0719, Hollingsworth, B. and Walker, I. (2019) Alcohol quantity and quality price elasticities: quantile regression estimates. European Journal of Health Economics, 20. pp. 439-454. ISSN 1618-7598
Abstract
Many people drink more than the recommended level of alcohol, with some drinking substantially more. There is evidence that suggests that this leads to large health and social costs, and price is often proposed as a tool for reducing consumption. This paper uses quantile regression methods to estimate the differential price (and income) elasticities across the drinking distribution. This is also done for on-premise (pubs, bars and clubs) and off-premise (supermarkets and shops) alcohol separately. In addition, we examine the extent to which drinkers respond to price changes by varying the 'quality' of the alcohol that they consume. We find that heavy drinkers are much less responsive to price in terms of quantity, but that they are more likely to substitute with cheaper products when the price of alcohol increases. The implication is that price-based policies may have little effect in reducing consumption amongst the heaviest drinkers, provided they can switch to lower quality alternatives.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. |
Keywords: | Alcohol demand; Quality elasticity; Quantile regression |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Health and Related Research (Sheffield) > ScHARR - Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 12 Oct 2018 09:00 |
Last Modified: | 03 May 2024 15:11 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Verlag |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s10198-018-1009-8 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:137020 |
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