County-Level Alcohol Availability and Cirrhosis Mortality

Robert Brown and Todd Jewell
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Robert Brown: University of North Texas
Todd Jewell: University of North Texas

Eastern Economic Journal, 1996, vol. 22, issue 3, 291-301

Abstract: The paper examines the impact of county-level alcohol availability on heavy drinking, as measured by liver cirrhosis mortality, employing data on the 254 Texas counties. In particular, reducing the number of licensed alcohol vendors raises the travel-cost component of the price of alcohol and, therefore, should lower the rate of cirrhosis mortality. Since the observed level of alcohol availability in a county is endogenous to the interaction of alcohol demand and supply, we follow a two-stage estimation method. The results show a strong positive relationship between cirrhosis mortality and alcohol availability: counties with a higher degree of alcohol availability tend to have more deaths from cirrhosis. Therefore, reducing alcohol availability, as measured by the number of licensed alcohol vendors, can be an important policy tool in reducing heavy drinking.

Keywords: MOrtality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 L66 R22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1996
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eej:eeconj:v:22:y:1996:i:3:p:291-301

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