Lockdown drinking: The sobering effect of price controls in a pandemic

Bokhari, Farasat A. S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5418-8078, Chakraborty, Ratula, Dobson, Paul W. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7352-740X and Morciano, Marcello (2024) Lockdown drinking: The sobering effect of price controls in a pandemic. Economic Inquiry, 62 (4). pp. 1539-1557. ISSN 0095-2583

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Abstract

Lockdown restrictions reduce the spread of COVID-19 but disrupt livelihoods and lifestyles that can induce harmful behavior changes, including problematic lockdown drinking fueled by cheap alcohol. Exploiting differences amongst the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom, we use triple difference analysis on alcohol retail sales to examine the efficacy of minimum unit pricing as a price control device to help curb excessive consumption in a pandemic setting. We find the policy is remarkably effective and well-targeted in reducing demand for cheap alcohol, with minimal spillover effects, and consumers overall buying and spending less.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT: Data and code used in this paper are available via the replication package available at https://doi.org/10.3886/E199482V1.
Uncontrolled Keywords: pandemic,lockdown,price control,minimum unit pricing,alcohol,excessive consumption,alcohol,excessive consumption,minimum unit pricing,lockdown,price control,pandemic,social sciences(all),economics, econometrics and finance(all),business, management and accounting(all),economics and econometrics,sdg 3 - good health and well-being,4*,highly original,important policy study,novel data,novel empirical method ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Economics
Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Industrial Economics
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Applied Econometrics And Finance
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Competition Policy
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Marketing
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Responsible Business Regulation Group
Related URLs:
Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 29 Apr 2024 12:30
Last Modified: 01 Oct 2024 09:30
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/95035
DOI: 10.1111/ecin.13237

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