Alcohol taxes and labor market outcomes

We present reduced form estimates of the effect of alcohol taxes on employment, weekly work hours, and wages, The reduced form estimates are meaningful in two ways: first, they provide estimates of the effect of an important public policy tool-alcohol taxes-and second, they can be used to evaluate hypotheses about the structural effects of alcohol use on labor market outcomes. Estimates indicate that there is a weak and indeterminate relationship between alcohol taxes and labor market outcomes. This implies that alcohol use does not adversely affect labor market outcomes and is inconsistent with findings from previous studies. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V All rights reserved.