The purpose of this paper is to estimate the effect that mental illness has on the demand for addictive goods. Mental illness could affect the level of consumption of addictive goods and could affect the price elasticities of addictive goods. Demand theory suggests that mental illness would...

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relationship between alcohol advertising bans and alcohol consumption. Most prior studies have found no effect of advertising on total alcohol consumption. A simple economic model is provided which explains these prior results. The data set...

The alcohol industry argues that alcohol excise taxes do not reduce heavy drinking because of substitutions to lower-cost products and that these taxes disproportionately burden low-income drinkers. Alternatively, some economists have argued that increases in alcohol excise taxes reduce heavy...

The purposes of this paper are to measure self-regulation, to investigate whether self-regulation differs across different health related choices, to estimate its effect on health choices and to estimate the effect of self-regulation on health-demographic gradients. The theory and empirical...

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the effect of state criminal justice expenditures and state public health expenditures on deterring illicit drug use. The empirical model is based on a demand and supply model of drug markets. The effect of a given expenditure on criminal justice or...

Despite the significant cost of prescription (Rx) drug abuse and calls from policy makers for effective interventions, there is limited research on the effects of policies intended to limit such abuse. This study estimates the effects of prescription drug monitoring (PDMP) programs which is a...

The purpose of this study is to estimate the effects of drunk driving deterrents and other alcohol related policies on drunk driving. The data set employed is an annual time-series of state cross-sections for the 48 contiguous states of the U.S. from 1982 through 1988. Total and alterative...

Several public health interest groups in the United States have recently called for equalization of the federal tax on a unit of alcohol in beer, in wine and in spirits. This paper provides some new empirical evidence of what effect alcohol tax differentials have on total alcohol consumption....

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the effect on alcohol abuse of banning broadcast advertising of alcoholic beverages. The effect of a ban cannot be studied using data from one country because the adoption of new advertising bans is an infrequent event and requires many years...