TY - JOUR
T1 - Price elasticity of demand for malt liquor beer
T2 - Findings from a US pilot study
AU - French, Michael Thomas
AU - Browntaylor, Didra
AU - Bluthenthal, Ricky Neville
N1 - Funding Information:
Financial assistance for this study was provided by Grants (R21 AA13534, R01 AA13167, and U24 AA11899) from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), the Public Health Service, the US Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Center for Minority Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health. We are grateful to Jenny Homer, Norma Guzmán-Becerra, Catherine Maclean, Venessa de la Portilla, Helena Salome, and Alicia Montoya for their research assistance and to William Russell for his suggestions and editorial assistance. The authors are entirely responsible for the research conducted in this paper and their positions or opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the NIAAA, The University of Miami, Charles Drew University, the RAND Corporation, or UCLA.
PY - 2006/5
Y1 - 2006/5
N2 - Our objective is to estimate the relative price elasticity of demand for malt liquor beer (MLB), regular beer, hard liquor, and a combined group of all other alcoholic beverages. Three hundred and twenty-nine alcohol consumers (mostly male) in South-Central Los Angeles answered a series of questions pertaining to expected consumption responses to hypothetical price increases. We found that based on a 10% price increase, the mean price elasticity of demand (% change in quantity demanded / % change in price) was -0.79 for MLB drinkers, -1.14 for regular beer drinkers, -1.11 for hard liquor drinkers, and -1.69 for the combined group of all other drinkers. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the personal characteristics significantly related to being a MLB drinker were older age, not working, being homeless, and a daily drinker. Daily (or nearly daily) drinkers were more likely to be married, earning lower incomes, and hard liquor drinkers. This study is the first to investigate the price elasticity of demand for MLB drinkers and other heavy alcohol consumers in poor urban neighborhoods of the US. Future research can use the methods from this pilot study to more rigorously examine and compare the price sensitivity among heavy drinking groups.
AB - Our objective is to estimate the relative price elasticity of demand for malt liquor beer (MLB), regular beer, hard liquor, and a combined group of all other alcoholic beverages. Three hundred and twenty-nine alcohol consumers (mostly male) in South-Central Los Angeles answered a series of questions pertaining to expected consumption responses to hypothetical price increases. We found that based on a 10% price increase, the mean price elasticity of demand (% change in quantity demanded / % change in price) was -0.79 for MLB drinkers, -1.14 for regular beer drinkers, -1.11 for hard liquor drinkers, and -1.69 for the combined group of all other drinkers. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the personal characteristics significantly related to being a MLB drinker were older age, not working, being homeless, and a daily drinker. Daily (or nearly daily) drinkers were more likely to be married, earning lower incomes, and hard liquor drinkers. This study is the first to investigate the price elasticity of demand for MLB drinkers and other heavy alcohol consumers in poor urban neighborhoods of the US. Future research can use the methods from this pilot study to more rigorously examine and compare the price sensitivity among heavy drinking groups.
KW - Malt liquor beer
KW - Price elasticity of demand
KW - Public policy
KW - USA
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33644906132&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.10.012
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.10.012
M3 - Article
C2 - 16297518
AN - SCOPUS:33644906132
VL - 62
SP - 2101
EP - 2111
JO - Ethics in Science and Medicine
JF - Ethics in Science and Medicine
SN - 0277-9536
IS - 9
ER -