Reducing binge drinking? The effect of a ban on late-night off-premise alcohol sales on alcohol-related hospital stays in Germany

Jan Marcus and Thomas Siedler

VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order from Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association

Abstract: Excessive alcohol consumption among youth and young adults is a major public health concern. On March 1, 2010 the German federal state of Baden-W rttemberg banned the sale of alcoholic beverages between 10pm and 5am in off-premise outlets (e.g. kiosks, petrol stations, supermarkets). We use rich monthly administrative data from a 70 percent random sample of all hospitalizations for the years 2007-2010 in Germany in order to evaluate the impact of this policy on alcohol-related hospitalizations. Applying a difference-in-difference approach, we find that the policy change reduces alcohol-related hospitalizations among adolescents and young adults by about 9 percent. The empirical results suggest that limiting late hours during which alcoholic beverages are allowed to be sold is an effective and rather "costless" public health initiative for reducing high-risk drinking among youth and young adults.

JEL-codes: D04 I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Reducing binge drinking? The effect of a ban on late-night off-premise alcohol sales on alcohol-related hospital stays in Germany (2015)
Journal Article: Reducing binge drinking? The effect of a ban on late-night off-premise alcohol sales on alcohol-related hospital stays in Germany (2015)
Working Paper: Reducing Binge Drinking? The Effect of a Ban on Late-Night Off-Premise Alcohol Sales on Alcohol-Related Hospital Stays in Germany (2015)
Working Paper: Reducing Binge Drinking? The Effect of a Ban on Late-Night Off-Premise Alcohol Sales on Alcohol-Related Hospital Stays in Germany (2015)
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