The Effects of Alcohol Use on Economic Decision Making

Klajdi Bregu (), Cary Deck (), Lindsay Ham () and Salar Jahedi ()
Additional contact information
Klajdi Bregu: University of Arkansas
Lindsay Ham: University of Arkansas
Salar Jahedi: RAND Corporation

Working Papers from Chapman University, Economic Science Institute

Abstract: It is notoriously hard to study the effect of alcohol on decision making, given the selection that takes place in who drinks alcohol and when they choose to do so. In a controlled laboratory experiment, we study the causal effect of alcohol on economic decision making. We examine the impact of alcohol on the following types of tasks: math and logic, uncertainty, overcon dence, strategic games, food choices, anchoring, and altruism. Our results indicate that alcohol consumption, as measured by the blood alcohol concentration (BAC), increases cooperation in strategic settings and altruism in Dictator games. We do not find any effects of alcohol on individual decision making tasks with the exception of anchoring. People with higher BAC did better in the anchoring task. The results suggest that the effects of alcohol are domain specifc.

Keywords: Alcohol; Risk Taking; Overconfidence; Altruism; Behavioral Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D03 D81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Effects of Alcohol Use on Economic Decision Making (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:chu:wpaper:16-03

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