TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Guthridge, Steve
AU  - Schurer, Stefanie
AU  - Taylor, Paige J.
        TI  - Minimum Unit Pricing, Alcohol Consumption and Infant Health: Evidence from the Alice Springs Liquor Supply Plan
        PY  - 2025/Oct/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18201
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp18201
        AB  - Restricting purchases or establishing a minimum (floor) price for low-cost, high-strength alcoholic beverages is an increasingly popular policy used to address problem drinking and alcohol-related harm. We study the consumption and short-term health-at-birth impacts of the 2006 Alice Springs Liquor Supply Plan (LSP) which effectively doubled the minimum per-unit price of alcohol by prohibiting sales of large containers of wine. Net alcohol consumption per person dropped by 12%. Both price and consumption remained unaffected in control regions. We estimated a price elasticity of demand for the cheapest drink in the market as low as -0.2. While this change decreased the total volume of pure alcohol consumed, it did not achieve a key policy objective to improve infant health outcomes among babies most at-risk for alcohol-related harm. We discuss mechanisms and potential policy conclusions.
        KW  - birth outcomes
KW  - health behaviours
KW  - alcohol regulation
KW  - difference-in-difference estimation
        ER  -