TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bhattacharya,Jay
AU  - Gathmann,Christina
AU  - Miller,Grant
TI  - The Gorbachev Anti-Alcohol Campaign and Russia's Mortality Crisis
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 18589
PY  - 2012
Y2  - December 2012
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18589
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18589.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Jay Bhattacharya
117 Encina Commons
Center for Primary Care
and Outcomes Research
Stanford University
Stanford, CA  94305-6019
Tel: 650/736-0404
Fax: 650/723-1919
E-Mail: jay@stanford.edu

Christina Gathmann
Department of Economics
University of Mannheim
L 7, 3-5
68131 Mannheim, Germany
E-Mail: cgathman@stanford.edu

Grant Miller
CHP/PCOR
Stanford University
117 Encina Commons
Stanford, CA  94305-6019
Tel: 650/723-2714
Fax: 650/723-1919
E-Mail: ngmiller@stanford.edu
AB  - Political and economic transition is often blamed for Russia’s 40% surge in deaths between 1990 and 1994. 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. Using archival sources to build a new oblast-year data set spanning 1978-2000, we find a variety of evidence suggesting that the campaign’s end explains a large share of the mortality crisis – implying that Russia’s transition to capitalism and democracy was not as lethal as commonly suggested.
ER  -