Light, moderate and heavy drinkers in Slovakia: How they respond to higher alcohol prices?

Abstract

In recent years WHO published several global reports about alcohol consumption including suggestions for reducing alcohol consumption. The main aim of this effort is decreasing of alkohol consumption globally about 10 % by 2025. They presented several policy options like taxation, bans on alcohol advertising and restrictions on the physical availability of retailed alcohol. Since alkohol consumption in Slovakia is in the top 10 in the world ranking and drinking pattern are according to OECD medium risky and there is huge inequality in distribution of alcohol consumption we decided to analyse how different drinking groups e.g. light, moderate and heavy drinkers respond to price change. Results confirms that heavy drinkers are less price sensitive than light and moderate drinkers, therefore reducing of alcohol consumption in Slovakia cannot be done only by taxation, but other supporting tools like sales restrictions and advertisement bans must be involved.

Keywords

• Alcohol
• Price elasticity
• Quantile regression