Using pre-commitment to reduce alcohol consumption: Lessons from a quasi-experiment in Thailand

Nopphol Witvorapong and Somtip Watanapongvanich

Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 2020, vol. 70, issue C

Abstract: Based on primary data of 453 drinkers in Thailand, this study investigates the impact of pre-commitment on alcohol consumption. It exploits the quasi-experimental nature of a social marketing campaign in Thailand implemented in 2014, where all drinkers were able to publicly pledge temporary alcohol abstention, and some but not all drinkers were provided with community-based health promotion interventions conducted by local residents. This study argues that the campaign had a pre-commitment device implicitly integrated into it; failures to follow through with the commitment were associated with mental costs of social embarrassment and weaker relationships with one's local social networks. Using a joint estimation method where the decision to pre-commit is explicitly endogenized, this study suggests that pre-commitment is effective in increasing the probabilities of temporary alcohol abstention and reduction.

Keywords: Alcohol; Self-control; Commitment; Quasi-experiment; Social marketing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D90 I12 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:soceps:v:70:y:2020:i:c:s0038012119300072

DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2019.06.008

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