Underage access to alcohol and its impact on teenage drinking and crime

Fabian T. Dehos

Journal of Health Economics, 2022, vol. 81, issue C

Abstract: Does underage access to alcohol increase teenage drinking and crime? To address this question, I leverage a discontinuity in legal access to alcohol at age 16 in Germany, a country with high consumption levels and a particularly early access regulation. Using detailed survey data and administrative crime records from 2005 to 2015, I detect considerable increases in drinking participation, frequency, and intensity at the legal cutoff along the middle and lower end of the distribution. These increases coincide with discrete jumps in criminal engagement under the influence of alcohol, mostly due to violent and property crimes. My findings suggest that changes in drinking intensity induce these crimes, implying a drinking-crime elasticity of 0.4 at age 16.

Keywords: Alcohol; Underage drinking; Crime; Minimum legal drinking age (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I18 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:81:y:2022:i:c:s0167629621001405

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2021.102555

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