Revealing Macroeconomic Determinants of Alcohol Abuse and its Influence on Life Expectancy in Russia

This working paper is devoted to researching inter-regional differences in the volume and structure of alcohol consumption. To find the underlying trends and dependences, we tested hypotheses about the influence of various macroeconomic factors on alcohol consumption in Russia. The tests were completed using regression analysis based on official statistical data. Data on the volume of regional alcohol sales in liters were used as proxy variables because of the shortage of regionally divided statistical data on alcohol consumption. The data on absolute alcohol consumption in each region were obtained from the weighted-average share of spirits in each kind of alcoholic product considered. Thus, we also assessed the role of different products in total alcohol consumption. At the end of this working paper we assessed the influence of alcohol abuse on population mortality and life expectancy. Valid results were obtained for both male and female parts of the population