TY  - JOUR
AU  - Saffer,Henry
TI  - Alcohol consumption and Tax Differentials Between Beer, Wine and Spirits
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 3200
PY  - 1989
Y2  - December 1989
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3200
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3200.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Henry Saffer
NBER
365 Fifth Avenue, 5th Floor
New York, NY  10016-4309
Tel: 212/817-7956
Fax: 212/817-1597
E-Mail: hsaffer@gc.cuny.edu
AB  - Several public health interest groups in the United States have recently called for equalization of the federal tax on a unit of alcohol in beer, in wine and in spirits. This paper provides some new empirical evidence of what effect alcohol tax differentials have on total alcohol consumption. The data indicate that the greatest decrease in alcohol consumption results from an increase in spirits taxes, followed by beer taxes and then wine taxes. This suggests that the existing generally accepted taxation policy of placing the highest tax on spirits, a lower tax on beer, and the lowest tax on wine, results in the greatest reduction in total alcohol consumption.
ER  -