Higher alcohol taxes reduce drinking

The more alcoholic beverages cost, the less likely people are to drink and when they do drink, they drink less, a U.S. researcher found.

Senior author Alexander C. Wagenaar, a professor of epidemiology and health policy research at the University of Florida College of Medicine, analyzed 112 studies spanning nearly four decades.

The study, published in the February edition of Addiction, documented a concrete association between the amount of alcohol people drink and its cost.

Results from over 100 separate studies reporting over 1,000 distinct statistical estimates are remarkably consistent, and show without doubt that alcohol taxes and prices affect drinking, Wagenaar said in a statement. When prices go down, people drink more, and when prices go up, people drink less.

The consistency of the association between cost and consumption indicates using taxes to raise prices on alcohol could be among the most effective deterrents to drinking that researchers have discovered, beating things like law enforcement, media campaigns or school programs, Wagenaar said.

The study also determined tax or price increases affect the broad population of drinkers, including heavy drinkers as well as light drinkers, teens as well as adults.