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Evgeny Yakovlev

University of California, Berkeley

Peers and Alcohol: Evidence from Russia

Author: Evgeny Yakovlev

Abstract: 

For the last twenty years Russia has confronted the Mortality Crisis– the life expectancy of Russian males has fallen by more than five years, and the mortality rate has increased by 50%. Alcohol abuse is widely agreed to be the main cause of this change. In this paper, I use a rich dataset on individual alcohol consumption to analyze the determinants for heavy drinking in Russia, such as the price of alcohol, peer effects and habits. I exploit unique location identifiers in my data and patterns of geographical settlement in Russia to measure peers within narrowly-defined neighborhoods. The definition of peers is validated by documenting a strong increase of alcohol consumption around the birthday of peers. With natural experiments I estimate the own price elasticity of the probability of heavy drinking. This price elasticity is identified using variation in alcohol regulations across Russian regions and over time. From these data, I develop a dynamic structural model of heavy drinking to quantify how changes in the price of alcohol would affect the proportion of heavy drinkers among Russian males and subsequently also affect mortality rates. I find that that higher alcohol prices reduce the probability of being a heavy drinker by a non-trivial amount. An increase in the price of vodka by 50% would save the lives of 40,000 males annually and would result in an increase of welfare. Peers account for a quarter of this effect.

Full Text: “Peers and Alcohol: Evidence from Russia”