The Economics of Alcohol and the Juvenile Context

Estimating the economies of alcohol, hence what wealth is produced each year by the alcoholic drink industry in Italy and how much the general public spends on damage deriving from alcohol abuse, is a theoretical adventure presenting many problems. In this analysis, young people play different roles in relation to the economies and diseconomies of alcohol. As far as the economies are concerned, a greater presence of teetotallers and occasional drinkers in this age group, added to the regular consumption of smaller quantities of alcohol, lead us to believe that the incidence on economies is less than proportional to demographic incidence. As far as the diseconomies are concerned, the incidence of direct and indirect costs of alcohol-related mortality and the incidence of the costs of morbidity, should be even lower than the average ones for the population, seeing the higher life-expectancy of the young, compensated however by inferior productivity, and a lower loss of production due to greatly reduced levels of activity and employment. The total of the resources available (11,721 million euros - the Italian economies of alcohol) and the total of social costs (in the average hypothesis 6,767 million euros - the Italian diseconomies of alcohol) should, for the 13 to 24 year-olds age group, account for 12.4% in terms of benefits (about 1,453 million euros) and for 10.2% in terms of social costs (690 million euros), with a quite low positive differential of about 763 million euros a year

Keywords: Alcohol, alcoholism, economies, diseconomies, social costs, youth morbility

Daniele Rossi, The Economics of Alcohol and the Juvenile Context in "SALUTE E SOCIETÀ" suppl. En. 3/2010, pp 79-91, DOI: 10.3280/SES2010-SU3006-ing