Social and Health Effects of Changes in Alcohol Prices: Findings and Tools from a Research Collaborative

Background: Scientific reviews overwhelmingly document the effects of increasing alcohol taxes on reducing alcohol consumption and related problems. To assist translation of this research into public health practice, a research collaborative formed to fill key gaps in the evidence base.

Methods: Teams from four universities used a variety of methods to evaluate short-term health impacts of recent alcohol tax increases, develop case studies of recent campaigns, assess employment impacts of various tax scenarios, and model individual economic impacts of tax scenarios on excessive vs. non-excessive drinkers and by employment and income group. Findings from the latter two studies were developed into on-line tools to presenting findings by state.

Results: Recent alcohol tax increases have influenced health. They do not result in job losses, and their effects are felt at the individual level most heavily by excessive drinkers and employed persons. Case study research documents multiple routes to alcohol tax increases. On-line tools exist and provide estimates of employment and individual effects of different tax scenarios for each of the 50 states.

Conclusions: Increases in alcohol taxes reduce negative effects of excessive alcohol consumption. On-line tools, case studies and other research from this collaborative can be significant resources for states considering alcohol tax increases.