Arbeitspapier
The Gorbachev Anti-Alcohol Campaign and Russia's mortality crisis
Political and economic transition is often blamed for Russia's 40% surge in deaths between 1990 and 1994 (the Russian Mortality Crisis). Highlighting that increases in mortality occurred primarily among alcohol related causes and among working-age men (the heaviest drinkers), this paper investigates an alternative explanation: the demise of the 1985-1988 Gorbachev Anti-Alcohol Campaign. We use archival sources to build a new oblast-year data set spanning 1970-2000 and find that: (1) The campaign was associated with substantially fewer campaign year deaths, (2) Oblasts with larger reductions in alcohol consumption and mortality during the campaign experienced larger transition era increases, and (3) Other former Soviet states and Eastern European countries exhibit similar mortality patterns commensurate with their campaign exposure. The campaign's end explains a large share of the mortality crisis, suggesting that Russia's transition to capitalism and democracy was not as lethal as commonly suggested.
- Language
-
Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 6783
- Classification
-
Wirtschaft
Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
Health and Economic Development
Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: Public Economics
Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: Consumer Economics; Health; Education and Training: Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty
Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies: Legal Institutions; Illegal Behavior
- Subject
-
mortality
transition
alcohol
Russia
- Event
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Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
-
Bhattacharya, Jay
Gathmann, Christina
Miller, Grant
- Event
-
Veröffentlichung
- (who)
-
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
- (where)
-
Bonn
- (when)
-
2012
- Handle
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Bhattacharya, Jay
- Gathmann, Christina
- Miller, Grant
- Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Time of origin
- 2012
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