Reducing binge drinking? The effect of a ban on late-night off-premise alcohol sales on alcohol-related hospital stays in Germany

Konferenzbeitrag

Excessive alcohol consumption among youth and young adults is a major public health concern. On March 1, 2010 the German federal state of Baden-W rttemberg banned the sale of alcoholic beverages between 10pm and 5am in off-premise outlets (e.g. kiosks, petrol stations, supermarkets). We use rich monthly administrative data from a 70 percent random sample of all hospitalizations for the years 2007-2010 in Germany in order to evaluate the impact of this policy on alcohol-related hospitalizations. Applying a difference-in-difference approach, we find that the policy change reduces alcohol-related hospitalizations among adolescents and young adults by about 9 percent. The empirical results suggest that limiting late hours during which alcoholic beverages are allowed to be sold is an effective and rather "costless" public health initiative for reducing high-risk drinking among youth and young adults.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Beiträge zur Jahrestagung des Vereins für Socialpolitik 2013: Wettbewerbspolitik und Regulierung in einer globalen Wirtschaftsordnung - Session: Health Economics ; No. G07-V1

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Health Behavior ; Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health ; Microeconomic Policy: Formulation, Implementation, and Evaluation

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Marcus, Jan ; Siedler, Thomas
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft
• (where): Kiel und Hamburg
• (when): 2013

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/79917
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET