The specific aims of this proposal are to investigate empirically the public health effects of alcohol advertising. The main focus of this proposal is to estimate the effects of alcohol advertising bans. This proposal is divided into two projects. The first project will estimate the effects of alcohol advertising bans on alcohol consumption using Euro-Barometer 32: The Single European Market, Drugs, Alcohol and Cancer, November 1989. This is a data set of over 23,000 individuals in the 12 European Community countries. Data on alcohol advertising bans, real price of alcohol and real taxes on alcohol will be appended to this data set. The data set also contains a number of variables which measure demographic characteristics, attitudes towards alcohol, and alcohol health knowledge. The second project will estimate the effects of alcohol advertising bans using an aggregate data set of 23 countries from 1970 through 1990. The outcome measures which will be used in this project are mean alcohol consumption, the liver cirrhosis mortality rate and the motor vehicle fatality rate. The independent variables include alcohol advertising bans, real price of alcohol, real taxes on alcohol real income, the minimum purchase age for purchase and consumption of alcohol and the minimum blood alcohol concentration used to define drunk driving. Tests for endogeneity of advertising bans and alcohol consumption will be performed.
