The Australian ready-to-drink beverages tax missed its target age group
Sergey Alexeev1, Donald Weatherburn1
1National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales 22-32 King Street Randwick, NSW 2052, Australia.
Background:
During 2008 and 2009, the Australian Government increased the tax on ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages by 70% to discourage drinking among adolescents.
Methods:
To evaluate the tax, we use the difference-in-difference and comparative interrupted time series estimators, where age is used to define the control and treatment groups. This methodology is applied to the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey.
Results:
We show that the tax did not affect the alcohol consumption of those aged under 25 (the tax targeted age group) but substantially reduced drinking among those aged 25-69, reducing their average daily consumption of standard drinks by 8.9% from 2010 to 2018.
Conclusion:
The age group under 25 did not respond to the tax likely because of product substitution. Alcohol price policy may need to acknowledge complex substitute/complement relationships between beverages and consider a floor price on alcohol or a uniform volumetric tax per standard drink.
Related Concept Videos
02:31Protection of Alcohols
Protection
It defines a protecting group as the masking agent to make the more reactive species inert to a given set of conditions. This concept is depicted via the illustration of liquid flow through different outlets in an assembly of pipes. The analogy helps to understand the role...
01:27Assessing Body Temperature - Rectal
Follow these steps for rectal temperature assessment:
Step 1: Perform hand hygiene and don clean gloves to prevent cross-infection.
Step 2: Position the patient in a side-lying position to better visualize the rectal...
01:29Decreased Body Temperature
01:27Mineral, Vitamin and Water Absorption
01:07Refrigerators and Heat Pumps
A household refrigerator removes heat from...
01:18Drug Delivery: Enteral Route