Health effects of a ban on late‐night alcohol sales

Abstract

Excessive alcohol consumption is a major health risk. It also has a negative impact on society in terms of road accidents, hospital admissions, and crime (Francesconi & James, 2019). Excessive alcohol consumption is particularly harmful for adolescents and young adults because it can negatively influence their brain development and increase the risk of alcohol dependence later in life (Enoch, 2006). However, in many countries, there is a high prevalence of excessive drinking among young people (World Health Organization, 2018b).Several policy measures have been introduced to tackle harmful drinking in general and among young people in particular. These have included minimum legal drinking age laws, drunk driving laws, and taxes on alcohol. In its most recent global status report on alcohol and health, the WHO argues: "The most cost-effective actions, or best buys, include increasing taxes on alcoholic beverages, enacting and enforcing bans or comprehensive restrictions on exposure to alcohol advertising across multiple types of media, and enacting and enforcing restrictions on the physical availability of retailed alcohol" (WHO, 2018a,b: 14). While there is a comprehensive literature on the consequences of minimum legal drinking age, underage drunk driving laws, and alcohol taxes for alcohol consumption and alcohol-attributable harm, 1 less was known about the health effects of policies regulating alcohol trading hours. However, a growing literature is filling this gap (see, e.g.

Alcohol Prohibition and Pricing at the Pump*

“…Particularly, we examine a nightly off-premise alcohol prohibition in Baden-Wuerttemberg, a German federal state with a population of eleven million. This policy primarily affected gasoline stations as the main nightly off-premise places to go for alcohol (Marcus and Siedler [2015]; Baueml et al [2023]). 1 From 2010 onwards, Baden-Wuerttemberg prohibited nightly alcohol sales from 10 pm to 5 am via the "Alkoholverkaufsverbotsgesetz" (Alcohol Sales Prohibition Law).…”

“…Its main intentions were the reduction of binge drinking among youths and of indirect spillovers on crime (Baumann et al [2019]; Baueml et al [2023]; Marcus and Siedler [2015]). The policy was effective in several ways indicating a real shock in the volume of alcohol consumed.…”

“…The policy was effective in several ways indicating a real shock in the volume of alcohol consumed. Up to now, Baueml et al [2023], Marcus and Siedler [2015] and Baumann et al [2019] discussed direct effects on health costs (hospital admissions, doctor visits) and crime for this specific case study. All three papers find that the policy had an economically relevant effect.…”

“…The number and the length of hospital stays among youth binge drinkers and late-night assaults fell due to the policy. The effect is strongest on young adults since they are more price-sensitive, can hardly pre-store alcohol in their parents' home and are more likely to conduct off-premise pre-drinking (Baueml et al [2023]).…”

“…Even though consumers might be implicitly steered through shops, some consumers actively decide to visit gasoline stations to buy products in the shop. While Baueml et al [2023] provide survey evidence that people were aware of the prohibition, there is no evidence on the familiarity with the policy lifting. We investigate consumer awareness by studying search queries in Google Trends, which documents standardized search frequencies for keywords in the search engine.…”