Zeitschrift für Alkoholismus und Drogenabhängigkeit
Offener Zugang

Abstrakt

The Effects of Alcohol Taxation and Pricing Policies on Unrecorded Alcohol Consumption in Russia

Razvodovsky YE

Background: In Russia, harmful drinking is significantly associated with consumption of unrecorded alcohol (homemade spirits and non-beverage alcohol surrogates) containing high levels of ethanol and other toxic substances.

Objectives: To estimate the effects of recent alcohol taxation and pricing policies on unrecorded alcohol consumption in Russia.

Methods: Trends in the affordability of vodka, excise tax rates on vodka, real disposable income, real price of vodka and unrecorded alcohol consumption per capita between 2010 and 2015, were compared.

Results: A Pearson’s correlation analysis suggests an inverse relationship between unrecorded alcohol consumption and total alcohol sales per capita, as well as vodka sales per capita. The relationship between unrecorded alcohol consumption and the affordability of vodka was also negative, but statistically nonsignificant. The level of unrecorded alcohol consumption also positively related to the excise tax rates on vodka and the real price of vodka.

Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that several factors including rising price of legal alcohol and ongoing economic crisis underpin a switch to unrecorded alcohol consumption in Russia over the last years.