Alms and Ale

A Malthusian Test of Welfare Generosity and Alcohol Consumption in OECD Countries, 1995–2023

Do more generous welfare states inadvertently raise demand for ‘vice’ goods like alcohol? A panel test of a Malthusian hypothesis across the OECD.

Work in progress

Research question

Building on Malthus’s insight that subsidized populations may shift consumption toward leisure and intoxicants, this project asks whether more generous welfare provision inadvertently increases the demand for “vice” goods such as alcohol. The approach assembles a multi-decade panel of OECD countries (1995–2023) and estimates fixed-effects, instrumental-variable, and dynamic specifications that control for income, taxation, culture, and time trends.

Note

This project is a work in progress. Details are available on request.