Alcohol Consumption in an Empty Nest

Francesco Scervini and Serena Trucchi

No E2024/20, Cardiff Economics Working Papers from Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section

Abstract: Alcohol consumption among older adults has been drawing public health interest due to the rising use of alcohol in the growing elderly population. This paper adds to the understanding of alcohol consumption in later life by investigating the impact of a specific life event: the transition to an empty nest, when adult children leave the parental home. Our findings show a significant increase in alcohol consumption in an empty nest, equivalent to approximately one additional drink every one to three weeks. This change is characterised by more regular drinking patterns and a modest rise in daily intake. The groups most affected by this change include couples, individuals with high income, those actively employed, and respondents aged 45-60. We also provide evidence on the mechanisms underlying this relationship, supporting a key role of relaxation and changes in time use.

Keywords: Empty nest; alcohol consumption; longitudinal data. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D1 I12 J14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 65 pages
Date: 2024-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-hea and nep-lab
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://carbsecon.com/wp/E2024_20.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Alcohol Consumption in an Empty Nest (2025)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cdf:wpaper:2024/20

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Cardiff Economics Working Papers from Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Yongdeng Xu ().