Alcohol Policy Impact on Volume and Structure of Alcohol Consumption in Russia

Russia has long been among the heaviest-drinking countries in the world. During the past decades Russia demonstrated one of the highest rates of alcohol use disorders and male mortality due to the hazardous drinking. Since early 2000’s various policy measures were introduced. Price regulation is assumed to be the most efficient measure. This paper investigates the effect of vodka price changes on the amount of alcohol consumed by Russian citizens exploiting the variation caused by the policy measures. Using a Regression Kink Design price elasticities of alcohol consumption were estimated and lied in the interval from -0.5 and -1.2 for the vodka consumption and -0.33 to -0.93 for the total pure alcohol consumption. The results can potentially be used in a future social cost-benefit analysis of Russian anti-alcohol policies.