IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v7y2010i5p1901-1912d8105.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Alcohol Taxes and Birth Outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Ning Zhang

    (Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, 601 Elmwood Ave, Box 644, Rochester, NY 14642, USA)

Abstract

This study examines the relationships between alcohol taxation, drinking during pregnancy, and infant health. Merged data from the US Natality Detailed Files, as well as the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (1985–2002), data regarding state taxes on beer, wine, and liquor, a state- and year-fixed-effect reduced-form regression were used. Results indicate that a one-cent ($0.01) increase in beer taxes decreased the incidence of low-birth-weight by about 1–2 percentage points. The binge drinking participation tax elasticity is −2.5 for beer and wine taxes and −9 for liquor taxes. These results demonstrate the potential intergenerational impact of increasing alcohol taxes.

Suggested Citation

  • Ning Zhang, 2010. "Alcohol Taxes and Birth Outcomes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 7(5), pages 1-12, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:7:y:2010:i:5:p:1901-1912:d:8105
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/7/5/1901/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/7/5/1901/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2007. "From the Cradle to the Labor Market? The Effect of Birth Weight on Adult Outcomes," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(1), pages 409-439.
    2. Michael Grossman, 1993. "Policy Watch: Alcohol and Cigarette Taxes," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(4), pages 211-222, Fall.
    3. Douglas Almond & Kenneth Y. Chay & David S. Lee, 2005. "The Costs of Low Birth Weight," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(3), pages 1031-1083.
    4. Currie, Janet & Gruber, Jonathan, 1996. "Saving Babies: The Efficacy and Cost of Recent Changes in the Medicaid Eligibility of Pregnant Women," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(6), pages 1263-1296, December.
    5. Evans, William N. & Ringel, Jeanne S., 1999. "Can higher cigarette taxes improve birth outcomes?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 135-154, April.
    6. Young, Douglas J & Bieli´nska-Kwapisz, Agnieszka, 2002. "Alcohol Taxes and Beverage Prices," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 55(1), pages 57-73, March.
    7. Young, Douglas J & Bieli´nska-Kwapisz, Agnieszka, 2002. "Alcohol Taxes and Beverage Prices," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 55(N. 1), pages 57-73, March.
    8. O'Connor, M.J. & Whaley, S.E., 2007. "Brief intervention for alcohol use by pregnant women," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(2), pages 252-258.
    9. Wagenaar, A.C. & Maldonado-Molina, M.M. & Wagenaar, B.H., 2009. "Effects of alcohol tax increases on alcohol-related disease mortality in Alaska: Time-series analyses from 1976 to 2004," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 99(8), pages 1464-1470.
    10. Philip J. Cook, 2007. "Introduction to Paying the Tab: The Costs and Benefits of Alcohol Control," Introductory Chapters, in: Paying the Tab: The Costs and Benefits of Alcohol Control, Princeton University Press.
    11. Sara Markowitz & Robert Kaestner & Michael Grossman, 2005. "An Investigation of the Effects of Alcohol Consumption and Alcohol Policies on Youth Risky Sexual Behaviors," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 263-266, May.
    12. Becker, Gary S, 1976. "Altruism, Egoism, and Genetic Fitness: Economics and Sociobiology," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 817-826, September.
    13. repec:ucn:wpaper:10197/317 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cook, Philip J. & Durrance, Christine Piette, 2013. "The virtuous tax: Lifesaving and crime-prevention effects of the 1991 federal alcohol-tax increase," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 261-267.
    2. Del Bono, Emilia & Francesconi, Marco & Ermisch, John, 2008. "Intrafamily resource allocations: a dynamic model of birth weight," ISER Working Paper Series 2008-27, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    3. Ruhm, Christopher J. & Jones, Alison Snow & McGeary, Kerry Anne & Kerr, William C. & Terza, Joseph V. & Greenfield, Thomas K. & Pandian, Ravi S., 2012. "What U.S. data should be used to measure the price elasticity of demand for alcohol?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 851-862.
    4. Bryan Bollinger & Steven E. Sexton, 2023. "Local excise taxes, sticky prices, and spillovers: evidence from Berkeley’s soda tax," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 281-331, June.
    5. Resul Cesur & Inas Rashad Kelly, 2014. "Who Pays The Bar Tab? Beer Consumption And Economic Growth In The United States," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(1), pages 477-494, January.
    6. Jon P. Nelson, 2014. "Gender Differences In Alcohol Demand: A Systematic Review Of The Role Of Prices And Taxes," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(10), pages 1260-1280, October.
    7. Verónica Amarante & Marco Manacorda & Edward Miguel & Andrea Vigorito, 2016. "Do Cash Transfers Improve Birth Outcomes? Evidence from Matched Vital Statistics, Program, and Social Security Data," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 1-43, May.
    8. Cassandra Robertson & Rourke O’Brien, 2018. "Health Endowment at Birth and Variation in Intergenerational Economic Mobility: Evidence From U.S. County Birth Cohorts," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(1), pages 249-269, February.
    9. Gabriella Conti & Mark Hanson & Hazel Inskip & Sarah Crozier & Cyrus Cooper & Keith Godfrey, 2018. "Beyond Birth Weight: The Origins of Human Capital," Working Papers 2018-089, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    10. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2007. "From the Cradle to the Labor Market? The Effect of Birth Weight on Adult Outcomes," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(1), pages 409-439.
    11. Vaske, Jamie C. & Newsome, Jamie & Boisvert, Danielle L. & Piquero, Alex R. & Paradis, Angela D. & Buka, Stephen L., 2015. "The impact of low birth weight and maternal age on adulthood offending," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 49-56.
    12. Settele, Sonja & Ewijk, Reyn van, 2018. "Can cigarette taxes during pregnancy mitigate the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 130-148.
    13. Janet Currie, 2011. "Ungleichheiten bei der Geburt: Einige Ursachen und Folgen," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 12(s1), pages 42-65, May.
    14. Tominey, Emma, 2007. "Maternal smoking during pregnancy and early child outcomes," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19675, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Anna Aizer & Laura Stroud, 2010. "Education, Knowledge and the Evolution of Disparities in Health," NBER Working Papers 15840, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Gehrsitz, Markus & Saffer, Henry & Grossman, Michael, 2021. "The effect of changes in alcohol tax differentials on alcohol consumption," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    17. Janet Currie, 2011. "Inequality at Birth: Some Causes and Consequences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 1-22, May.
    18. Emilia Del Bono & John Ermisch & Marco Francesconi, 2012. "Intrafamily Resource Allocations: A Dynamic Structural Model of Birth Weight," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 30(3), pages 657-706.
    19. Jon Nelson, 2015. "Binge drinking and alcohol prices: a systematic review of age-related results from econometric studies, natural experiments and field studies," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-13, December.
    20. Kasey Buckles & Joseph Price, 2013. "Selection and the Marriage Premium for Infant Health," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(4), pages 1315-1339, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:7:y:2010:i:5:p:1901-1912:d:8105. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.