Does minimum pricing reduce alcohol consumption? The experience of a Canadian province

Stockwell, Tim; Auld, M. Christopher; Zhao, Jinhui; Martin, Gina

doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03763.x

Cited by 164 publications

(141 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The incidence of switching to spirits from other alcoholic beverages in Denmark in 2004 was modest ). The Finnish tax change affected all alcoholic beverages to a greater or lesser extent, including reducing the price of the cheapest beverage per unit of ethanol, an aspect of pricing increasingly seen as an important influence on rates of problematic drinking (Stockwell, Auld, Zhao, & Martin, 2012). A greater effect on consumption of the Finnish tax change than of the Danish, as in fact occurred, might therefore have been expected.…”

Section: Distinct Policy Interventions In Denmark and Finlandmentioning

confidence: 98%

What happened to alcohol consumption and problems in the Nordic countries when alcohol taxes were decreased and borders opened?

Room

Bloomfield

Gmel

et al. 2013

IJADR

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Aims: The study tests the effects of reductions in alcohol taxation and increases in travellers' allowances on alcohol consumption and related harm in Denmark, Finland, and southern Sweden. In late 2003 and early 2004, taxes on alcoholic beverages were reduced in Denmark and Finland, and the abolition of quantitative quotas on alcohol import for personal use from other European Union countries made cheaper alcohol more available in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden.Method: Analyses of routine statistical register data and summaries of results from longitudinal and repeated cross-sectional population surveys and other previous analyses, with northern Sweden as a control site for secular trends.Results: Contrary to expectations, alcohol consumption-as based on register data-increased only in Finland and not in Denmark and southern Sweden, and self-reported survey data did not show an increase in any site. In Finland, alcoholattributable harms in register data increased, especially in people with low socio-economic status. Few such effects were found in Denmark and southern Sweden. Neither did results for self-reported alcohol-attributable problems show any general increases in the three sites. These results remained after controlling for regression to the mean and modelling of drop-outs. Conclusions:Harms measured in register data did tend to increase in the short term with the policy change, particularly in Finland, where the tax changes were broader. But reducing price and increasing availability does not always increase alcohol consumption and harm. Effects are dampened in affluent societies, and other factors may intervene. The results for Finland also suggest some limits for general population surveys in testing for relatively small policy effects.

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Section: Distinct Policy Interventions In Denmark and Finlandmentioning

confidence: 98%

What happened to alcohol consumption and problems in the Nordic countries when alcohol taxes were decreased and borders opened?

Room

Bloomfield

Gmel

et al. 2013

IJADR

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“…25 The Sheffi eld Alcohol Policy Model 17 predicts that an MUP delivers a greater reduction in alcohol-related harm than overall increases in taxation, with almost double the number of deaths prevented. 26 Further evidence for the effectiveness of an MUP comes from long-running natural experiments in Canada, where signifi cant reductions in alcohol consumption followed increases in minimum prices in government liquor stores, despite these outlets representing only a minority of the retail market, 27,28 with a 10% increase in minimum price resulting in a 32% fall in deaths directly attributable to alcohol. 29 as a result, they purchase the cheapest alcohol it is possible to buy, paying less than one-third of the price paid by low-risk drinkers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of minimum price per unit of alcohol on patients with liver disease in the UK

et al. 2014

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The slow epidemic of liver disease in the UK over the past 30 years is a result of increased consumption of strong cheap alcohol. When we examined alcohol consumption in 404 subjects with a range of liver disease, we confi rmed that patients with alcohol-related cirrhosis drank huge amounts of cheap alcohol, with a mean weekly consumption of 146 units in men and 142 in women at a median price of 33p/unit compared with £1.10 for low-risk drinkers. For the patients in our study, the impact of a minimum unit price of 50p/unit on spending on alcohol would be 200 times higher for patients with liver disease who were drinking at harmful levels than for low-risk drinkers. As a health policy, a minimum unit price for alcohol is exquisitely targeted at the heaviest drinkers, for whom the impact of alcohol-related illness is most devastating.

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“…The relationship has been interpreted to indicate that average consumption causally determines heavy drinking prevalence, possibly through a contagious social environment or "drinking culture." This view is expressed in the continuing interest in alcohol taxes [11], recent interest in minimum pricing of alcohol [30,31], and concern with the increased "affordability" of alcohol beverages over time or across countries [32,33]. However, as explained by Duffy [34], heavy drinkers account for a large proportion of total alcohol consumption, so a statistical relationship between average consumption in a country and the percentage of heavy drinkers should be expected, and does not necessarily imply a causal relationship.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meta-Analysis of Alcohol Price and Income Elasticities – With Corrections for Publication Bias

Nelson

2013

SSRN Journal

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Does minimum pricing reduce alcohol consumption? The experience of a Canadian province

Abstract: Increases in minimum prices of alcoholic beverages can substantially reduce alcohol consumption.

Cited by 164 publications

References 19 publications

What happened to alcohol consumption and problems in the Nordic countries when alcohol taxes were decreased and borders opened?

What happened to alcohol consumption and problems in the Nordic countries when alcohol taxes were decreased and borders opened?

Impact of minimum price per unit of alcohol on patients with liver disease in the UK

Meta-Analysis of Alcohol Price and Income Elasticities – With Corrections for Publication Bias

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