Investigating the volume and structure of alcohol consumption in Russian regions

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine macroeconomic factors that are significantly related to consumption of various alcoholic beverages in Russia. Design/methodology/approach -The authors consider 78 Russian regions for the period from 2008 to 2012. Data were collected from the Federal State Statistics Service of Russia. The authors investigate differences in the volume and structure of consuming absolute alcohol in aggregate, vodka, beer, and wine. Estimating fixed effect panel models enables us to reveal the relationship between alcohol consumption and the set of macroeconomic factors that include economic development of regions and living standards, the effect of unemployment, and the degree of urbanization. Findings -Alcohol consumption is procyclical in Russia. Two main alcoholic beverages in Russia are vodka and beer. Economic development and urbanization of regions are positively related to consuming alcohol. Unemployment rate affects consumption of different types of alcoholic drinks in a different way. For absolute alcohol, vodka and beer, this relationship is negative. However, it is positive for wine. The effect of unemployment on absolute alcohol and vodka increases over time. For beer, it is remained unchanged. For wine, this effect weakens over time. Originality/value -To the authors knowledge, the paper is the first one to analyze macro-level factors of consumption of different alcoholic beverages in Russia. Conclusions made on aggregate macroeconomic data add to understanding of drinking patterns in Russia as a country with the large territory and great regional variations. Findings can be used for correcting the alcohol policy at the national and regional level.

Gender Gap in Life Expectancy in Russia: The Role of Alcohol Consumption

“…However, existing academic scholarship suggests that alcohol abuse may escalate during economic recovery. Kossova et al (2017) found that alcohol consumption is procyclical in Russia, which is consistent with the findings of Ruhm and Black for the US (Ruhm and Black, 2002), Johansson et al for Finland (Johansson et al, 2006), and Ásgeirsdóttir et al for Iceland (2014). Thus, there is an additional challenge for the public policy expressed in the need to combat alcohol abuse while improving macroeconomic conditions, rising household incomes, and reducing unemployment.…”

“…Since the mid-2000s, these factors no longer exert a decisive influence on the gender gap in life expectancy, since Russia has been experiencing macroeconomic and political stabilisation. Furthermore, there has been a change in the structure of alcohol consumption over the past ten years in Russia (Kossova et al, 2017). Consumption of strong alcohol (vodka) is partially replaced by low-alcohol beverages (beer).…”

Structural Changes in the Consumption of Beer, Wine and Spirits in OECD Countries from 1961 to 2014

“…Secondly, in line with [14], trade openness is included in the model. Thus, a tradition for high levels of trade facilitates and opens up a more differentiated supply of goods.…”

“…Deveaux and Sassi use data for twenty OECD countries and find a stability in the overall alcohol consumption levels [13], but, for example, young adults show increasing higher-risk drinking behaviour, and such factors will in the longer run have influence on the structural composition of alcohol consumption. For Russia, a study by Kossova et al also finds specific internal factors to be of importance for the structure of alcohol consumption, where e.g., unemployment is, somewhat surprisingly, negatively related to the consumption of vodka and beer, but in some years positively related to wine consumption [14].…”

Differences in Alcohol Consumption and Preferences for Types of Alcoholic Beverages in OECD Countries

“…Differences in alcohol consumption are evident not only at the level of countries or regions (Branstrom & Andreasson, 2008;Bencevic-Striehl et al, 2009), but also in connection with the place where alcohol consumption takes place (Callinan et al, 2016) or the type of alcoholic beverage (Kossova et al, 2017). The consumption of individual types of alcoholic beverages poses different risks.…”