TY  - JOUR
AU  - Dave,Dhaval
AU  - Kaestner,Robert
TI  - Alcohol Taxes and Labor Market Outcomes
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8562
PY  - 2001
Y2  - October 2001
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8562
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8562.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Dhaval M. Dave
Bentley University
Department of Economics
175 Forest Street, AAC 195
Waltham, MA 02452-4705
Tel: 212/817-7955
Fax: 212/817-1597
E-Mail: ddave@bentley.edu

Robert Kaestner
Institute of Government and Public Affairs
University of Illinois
815 West Van Buren Street, Suite 525
Chicago, IL  60607
Tel: 312/996-8227
E-Mail: kaestner.robert@gmail.com
AB  - In this paper, we present estimates of the effect of alcohol taxes on employment, hours of work per week, and wages.  These are reduced form estimates derived from a structural model linking alcohol use to labor market outcomes.  The reduced form estimates are meaningful in two ways: first, they provide estimates of the effect of an important public policy tool, alcohol taxes, on labor market outcomes, and second, they can be used to evaluate hypotheses about the structural effects of alcohol use on labor market outcomes. The results of the analysis suggest that alcohol taxes are unrelated to employment, hours of work, and wages.  Estimates of the effect of alcohol taxes on labor market outcomes were large and imprecise, and characterized by significant variation in sign and magnitude across samples and types of alcohol taxes.  This suggests that there is a weak and indeterminate relationship between alcohol taxes and labor market outcomes.  This finding implies that alcohol use does not adversely affect labor market outcomes and is inconsistent with findings from previous studies.
ER  -