Article
Alcohol Trade Restrictions and Alcohol Consumption: On the Effectiveness of State Policy
The paper analyzes the impact of nighttime alcohol trade restrictions in regions of Russia on the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Evaluation has been carried out based on the regional Rosstat data and individual data of the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey by the HSE for 2009–2010. Econometric analysis has revealed a positive correlation between the amount of consumed alcohol and the duration of the allowed time for alcohol sales in the region. In addition, it has been found that night restrictions are more efficient than morning restrictions in the context of a decrease in alcohol consumption. The obtained results indicate the expediency of further tightening of the restrictive policy.
This paper reviews the literature on a theme of influence of alcohol consumption on wages and employment of workers on a labour market. The authors considering overconsumption of alcohol as disease, observed negative influence of abusing alcohol on individual's position on labour market. However some economists have found out positive communication between moderate consumption of alcohol and wages, explaining the given fact to that moderate consumption of alcohol improves health, reducing probability of cardiovascular diseases.
Aims. To determine the impact of a set of 2006 Russian alcohol policies on deaths due to traffic accidents in the country.
Design, Setting, Participants. We used autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) interrupted time series techniques to model the impact of the intervention on the outcome series. The time series began in January 2000 and ended in December 2010. The alcohol policy was implemented in January 2006, providing 132 monthly observations in the outcome series, with 72 months of pre-intervention data and 60 months of post-intervention data.
Measurements. The outcome variables were the monthly number of male- and female-specific deaths of those aged 15+ years due to transport accidents in Russia.
Results The 2006 set of alcohol policies had no impact on female deaths due to traffic accidents (ω0 = 50.31, p = .27). However, the intervention model revealed an immediate and sustained monthly decrease of 203 deaths due to transport accidents for males (ω0 = -203.40, p = .04), representing an 11% reduction relative to pre-intervention levels.
Conclusions. Our findings are consistent with prior research elsewhere showing that alcohol policies are associated with a reduction in deaths due to transport accidents, especially for males. Given the high volume of alcohol consumption and the high rate of deaths due to traffic accidents in Russia, our findings are substantively important. Specifically, our results show that the implementation of the 2006 Russian alcohol policy is partially responsible for saving more than 2400 male lives annually that would otherwise have been lost to traffic accidents. More generally, our study reveals that alcohol policy is one of multiple pathways that can be utilized to reduce traffic fatalities.
The chapter provides a review of contemporary life style policies in Russia highlighting main issues and suggesting some improvements in governmental interventions.
The book is dedicated to alcohol state policies in the XVII – early XIX century.
The monograph considers in detail the issues of state-legal regulation of production and turnover of alcoholic and alcohol-containing products. The auther chronologically presents alcohol-related statutory and legal documentation, generated in Russia during two and a half centuries. The book specifies economic and social consequences of State regulation of the alcohol politicy issues. In the monograph some aspects of the modern legal regulation of production, storage, transportation, wholesale and retail trade of alcohol are considered.
Aims: This study compared the level of alcohol mortality in tsarist and contemporary Russia. Methods: Cross-sectional and annual time-series data from 1870 to 1894, 2008 and 2009 on the mortality rate from deaths due to ‘drunkenness’ were compared for men in the 50 provinces of tsarist ‘European Russia’: an area that today corresponds with the territory occupied by the Baltic countries, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine and the Russian provinces to the west of the Ural Mountains. Results: In 1870–1894, the male death rate from ‘drunkenness’ in the Russian provinces (15.9 per 100,000) was much higher than in the non-Russian provinces. However, the rate recorded in Russia in the contemporary period was even higher—23.3. Conclusions: Russia has had high levels of alcohol mortality from at least the late 19th century onwards. While a dangerous drinking pattern and spirits consumption may underpin high alcohol mortality across time, the seemingly much higher levels in the contemporary period seem to be also driven by an unprecedented level of consumption, and also possibly, surrogate alcohol use. This study highlights the urgent need to reduce the level of alcohol consumption among the population in order to reduce high levels of alcohol mortality in contemporary Russia.
Smoking is a problem, bringing signifi cant social and economic costs to Russiansociety. However, ratifi cation of the World health organization Framework conventionon tobacco control makes it possible to improve Russian legislation accordingto the international standards. So, I describe some measures that should be taken bythe Russian authorities in the nearest future, and I examine their effi ciency. By studyingthe international evidence I analyze the impact of the smoke-free areas, advertisementand sponsorship bans, tax increases, etc. on the prevalence of smoking, cigaretteconsumption and some other indicators. I also investigate the obstacles confrontingthe Russian authorities when they introduce new policy measures and the public attitudetowards these measures. I conclude that there is a number of easy-to-implementanti-smoking activities that need no fi nancial resources but only a political will.
One of the most important indicators of company's success is the increase of its value. The article investigates traditional methods of company's value assessment and the evidence that the application of these methods is incorrect in the new stage of economy. So it is necessary to create a new method of valuation based on the new main sources of company's success that is its intellectual capital.
We address the external effects on public sector efficiency measures acquired using Data Envelopment Analysis. We use the health care system in Russian regions in 2011 to evaluate modern approaches to accounting for external effects. We propose a promising method of correcting DEA efficiency measures. Despite the multiple advantages DEA offers, the usage of this approach carries with it a number of methodological difficulties. Accounting for multiple factors of efficiency calls for more complex methods, among which the most promising are DMU clustering and calculating local production possibility frontiers. Using regression models for estimate correction requires further study due to possible systematic errors during estimation. A mixture of data correction and DMU clustering together with multi-stage DEA seems most promising at the moment. Analyzing several stages of transforming society’s resources into social welfare will allow for picking out the weak points in a state agency’s work.