Alcohol Consumption During Prohibition

Jeffrey A. Miron, Jeffrey Zwiebel

NBER Working Paper No. 3675 (Also Reprint No. r1563)
Issued in April 1991

We estimate the consumption of alcohol during Prohibition using mortality, mental health and crime statistics. We find that alcohol consumption fell sharply at the beginning of Prohibition, to approximately 30 percent of its pre-Prohibition level. During the next several years, however, alcohol consumption increased sharply, to about 60-70 percent of its pre-prohibition level. The level of consumption was virtually the same immediately after Prohibition as during the latter part of Prohibition, although consumption increased to approximately its pre-Prohibition level during the subsequent decade.

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Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w3675

Published: The American Economic Review, Vol. 81, No. 2, pp. 242-247, (May 1991). citation courtesy of

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