Neuroeconomics and Alcohol Control Policy

描述（由申请人提供）：神经经济学模型预测，个体成瘾存量的增加会增加他们对外部线索（如广告）的反应，降低他们对客观信息（如价格）的反应。由于大多数酒精消费者是适度饮酒者，理想情况下，酒精控制政策应该针对酗酒者。然而，对广告和门店密度的限制通常次于消费税的增加。一个可能的原因是相对有限的研究表明，广告和网点密度控制是有效的，而相对大量的研究表明，消费税是有效的。这些微弱结果的部分原因是，许多先前关于广告和门店密度影响的研究使用了可疑的方法，而且没有一个研究控制了上瘾的库存。然而，许多关于价格的研究已经通过估计价格对酗酒者的影响来控制上瘾的库存。这些研究表明，与适度饮酒者相比，重度饮酒者对价格上涨的反应更弱，这与神经经济学模型的预测相一致。该项目将以先前酒精广告研究的方法进步为基础，并通过使用具有个人固定效应的面板数据和通过控制成瘾库存来改进方法。预期本研究的结果将有助于调和先前关于广告和门店密度的研究的差异。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The neuroeconomic model predicts that an increase in an individual's addictive stock will increase their responsiveness to external cues such as advertising and decrease their responsiveness to objective information such as price. Since most alcohol consumers are moderate drinkers, alcohol control policy ideally should be targeted at alcohol abusers. However, restrictions on advertising and outlet density have been generally secondary to increases in excise taxes. A likely reason for this is the relatively limited number of studies which show that advertising and outlet density controls are effective in contrast to the relatively large number of studies which show that excise taxes are effective. Part of the reason for these weak results is that many prior studies of the effect of advertising and outlet density have used dubious methodologies and none have controlled for addictive stock. However, a number of studies of price have controlled for addictive stock by estimating price effects specifically for heavy drinkers. These studies have shown that heavy drinkers are less responsive to price increases than are moderate drinkers which are consistent with the predictions of the neuroeconomic model. This project will build on methodological advances of prior studies of alcohol advertising and advance the methodology with the use of panel data with individual fixed effects and by controlling for addictive stock. It is expected that the results from this study will help to reconcile the differences from prior studies of advertising and outlet density. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The results of this study will be important in assessing the relative value of alternative public policies designed to reduce alcohol abuse. These policies include restrictions on alcohol advertising, alcohol outlet density and alcohol taxes. It is important to understand which of these policies are more likely to reduce alcohol abuse since the alcohol industry is likely to oppose any changes which it believes will reduce sales.