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The Effect of Sunday Alcohol Sales Bans on Teen Drinking in Georgia
Author(s) -
Meany Brendan,
Berning Joshua,
Smith Travis,
Rejesus Roderick M
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
applied economic perspectives and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.4
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 2040-5804
pISSN - 2040-5790
DOI - 10.1093/aepp/ppx046
Subject(s) - repeal , endogeneity , instrumental variable , alcohol consumption , exploit , consumption (sociology) , environmental health , business , alcohol , demographic economics , public economics , economics , law , political science , computer security , medicine , econometrics , sociology , computer science , social science , chemistry , biochemistry
Current Blue laws are primarily concerned with limiting the sale of alcohol on Sunday. This presumably decreases adverse outcomes related to alcohol consumption. We examine whether the repeal of alcohol sales on Sunday in Georgia had an impact on teenage drinking, which is linked to a multitude of risky behaviors. We exploit the heterogeneous repeal across counties and municipalities. To account for potential endogeneity, we employ an instrumental variable approach. Across several model specifications, we find no effect of repeal on underage drinking. Concerns that repeal might contribute to increases in underage drinking appear to be unfounded in this case.