IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/soecon/v81y2015i4p1145-1168.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A test of prohibition's effect on alcohol production and consumption using crop yields

Author

Listed:
  • Griffin Edwards
  • Travis Howe

Abstract

The effect of alcohol prohibition in the United States has been the subject of continuing debate. Due to a lack of data, one question that remains unanswered is the effect prohibition had on the actual production of alcohol. This article attempts to answer this question by estimating prohibition's impact on the yields of grains that constitute the principal inputs in alcohol production. Using a variety of data sources and exploiting the variation in timing of state prohibition law adoption, we estimate the effect of prohibition on several measures of crop production. Our preferred identification strategy compares contiguous counties in states with differing prohibition laws. Our findings suggest that state prohibition laws decreased the production of barley and may have increased the production of corn. Using these estimates, we calculate that prohibition decreased alcohol production, and by extension consumption, by at least 18 gallons per adult per year.

Suggested Citation

  • Griffin Edwards & Travis Howe, 2015. "A test of prohibition's effect on alcohol production and consumption using crop yields," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 81(4), pages 1145-1168, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:81:y:2015:i:4:p:1145-1168
    DOI: 10.1002/soej.12025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/soej.12025
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/soej.12025?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Miron, Jeffrey A & Zwiebel, Jeffrey, 1991. "Alcohol Consumption during Prohibition," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 242-247, May.
    2. Babcock, Bruce A. & Hayes, Dermot J. & Lawrence, John D., 2008. "Using Distillers Grains in the U.S. And International Livestock and Poultry Industries," Staff General Research Papers Archive 13009, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    3. Dills, Angela K. & Jacobson, Mireille & Miron, Jeffrey A., 2005. "The effect of alcohol prohibition on alcohol consumption: evidence from drunkenness arrests," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 279-284, February.
    4. Huang, Rocco R., 2008. "Evaluating the real effect of bank branching deregulation: Comparing contiguous counties across US state borders," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 678-705, March.
    5. Angela K. Dills, 2004. "Alcohol Prohibition and Cirrhosis," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 6(2), pages 285-318.
    6. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    7. Arindrajit Dube & T. William Lester & Michael Reich, 2010. "Minimum Wage Effects Across State Borders: Estimates Using Contiguous Counties," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(4), pages 945-964, November.
    8. Emily Greene Owens, 2011. "Are Underground Markets Really More Violent? Evidence from Early 20th Century America," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 13(1), pages 1-44.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Eline Poelmans & John A. Dove & Jason E. Taylor & Ranjit S. Dighe, 2022. "Factors influencing the timing and type of state-level alcohol prohibitions prior to 1920," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 192(3), pages 201-226, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Livingston, Brendan, 2016. "Murder and the black market: Prohibition's impact on homicide rates in American cities," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 33-44.
    2. Kai Barron & Charles D. H. Parry & Debbie Bradshaw & Rob Dorrington & Pam Groenewald & Ria Laubscher & Richard Matzopoulos, 2024. "Alcohol, Violence, and Injury-Induced Mortality: Evidence from a Modern-Day Prohibition," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(4), pages 938-955, July.
    3. de Walque, Damien, 2020. "The use of financial incentives to prevent unhealthy behaviors: A review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    4. Howard, Greg & Ornaghi, Arianna, 2021. "Closing Time: The Local Equilibrium Effects of Prohibition," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 81(3), pages 792-830, September.
    5. Popov, Alexander & Zaharia, Sonia, 2019. "Credit market competition and the gender gap in labor force participation: Evidence from local markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 25-59.
    6. Eric James Stokan, 2019. "An Estimate of the Local Economic Impact of State-Level Earned Income Tax Credits," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 33(3), pages 170-186, August.
    7. Francis-Tan, Andrew & Tan, Cheryl & Zhang, Ruhan, 2018. "School spirit: Exploring the long-term effects of the U.S. temperance movement on educational attainment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 162-169.
    8. Mary F. Evans & Eric Helland & Jonathan Klick & Ashwin Patel, 2016. "The Developmental Effect Of State Alcohol Prohibitions At The Turn Of The Twentieth Century," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(2), pages 762-777, April.
    9. Alexander Ljungqvist & Michael Smolyansky, 2014. "To Cut or Not to Cut? On the Impact of Corporate Taxes on Employment and Income," NBER Working Papers 20753, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Chiu, Kevin, 2021. "The impact of certificate of need laws on heart attack mortality: Evidence from county borders," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    11. Barron, Kai & Bradshaw, Debbie & Parry, Charles D. H. & Dorrington, Rob & Groenewald, Pam & Laubscher, Ria & Matzopoulos, Richard, 2021. "Alcohol and Short-Run Mortality: Evidence from a Modern-Day Prohibition," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 273, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    12. Zhang, Xiaohan, 2020. "Parents in Temperance," MPRA Paper 101038, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Pender, John & Jo, Young & Miller, Cristina, 2015. "Economic Impacts of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Payments in Nonmetro vs. Metro Counties," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205626, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. Joan Monras, 2020. "Immigration and Wage Dynamics: Evidence from the Mexican Peso Crisis," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(8), pages 3017-3089.
    15. Stefano Cascino & Ane Tamayo & Felix Vetter, 2021. "Labor Market Effects of Spatial Licensing Requirements: Evidence from CPA Mobility," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(1), pages 111-161, March.
    16. Link, Sebastian, 2024. "The price and employment response of firms to the introduction of minimum wages," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    17. Li, Lei & Luo, Changtuo, 2023. "Does administrative decentralization promote outward foreign direct investment and productivity? Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    18. Edo, Anthony & Rapoport, Hillel, 2019. "Minimum wages and the labor market effects of immigration," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    19. Daniel J. Smith & Macy Scheck, 2023. "Examining the public interest rationale for regulating whiskey with the pure food and drugs act," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 196(1), pages 85-122, July.
    20. Clemens, Jeffrey, 2017. "Pitfalls in the Development of Falsification Tests: An Illustration from the Recent Minimum Wage Literature," MPRA Paper 80154, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:81:y:2015:i:4:p:1145-1168. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)2325-8012 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.