Alcohol, Violence and Injury-Induced Mortality: Evidence from a Modern-Day Prohibition

Kai Barron, Charles D.H. Parry, Debbie Bradshaw, Rob Dorrington, Pam Groenewald, Ria Laubscher and Richard Matzopoulos

EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, 2022, issue Online Early, Just Accepted, 1-44

Abstract: This paper evaluates the impact of a sudden and unexpected nation-wide alcohol sales ban in South Africa. We find that this policy causally reduced injury-induced mortality in the country by at least 14%. We argue that this estimate constitutes a lower bound on the true impact of alcohol on injury-induced mortality. We also document a sharp drop in violent crimes, indicating a tight link between alcohol and aggressive behavior in society. Our results underscore the severe harm that alcohol can cause and point towards a role for policy measures that target the heaviest drinkers in society.

Keywords: alcohol; mortality; economics; health; crime; South Africa; COVID-19; violence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I18 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/268208/1/F ... hol-violence-and.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Alcohol, Violence, and Injury-Induced Mortality: Evidence from a Modern-Day Prohibition (2024)
Working Paper: Alcohol, Violence and Injury-Induced Mortality: Evidence from a Modern-Day Prohibition (2022)
Working Paper: Alcohol, violence and injury-induced mortality: Evidence from a modern-day prohibition (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:espost:268208

DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01228

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