Urban Mortality and the Repeal of Federal Prohibition

David Jacks, Krishna Pendakur and Hitoshi Shigeoka

No 28181, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Federal prohibition was one of the most ambitious policy interventions in US history. However, the removal of restrictions on alcohol after 1933 was not uniform. Using a new balanced panel on annual deaths, we find that city-level repeal is associated with a 11.6% decrease in the rate of death by non-automobile accidents, a category which critically include accidental poisonings. We relate this finding to a large literature which emphasizes – but never precisely quantifies – the mortality effects of adulterated alcohol during federal prohibition. Thus, repeal likely led to a large annual reduction in accidental poisonings. However, combined with previous results showing even larger increases in infant mortality, repeal nonetheless likely had negative contemporaneous effects on public health.

JEL-codes: H73 I18 J1 N3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-hea and nep-his
Note: DAE
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Published as David S. Jacks & Krishna Pendakur & Hitoshi Shigeoka, 2023. "Urban Mortality and the Repeal of Federal Prohibition," Explorations in Economic History, .

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Journal Article: Urban mortality and the repeal of federal prohibition (2023)
Working Paper: Urban Mortality and the Repeal of Federal Prohibition (2020)
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