Department of Applied Economics' Academic Seminar - Tatiana KOSSOVA, " Investigating the volume and structure of alcohol consumption in Russian regions ".

Dear colleagues,

 Department of Applied Economics  invites you to attend the academic seminar that will be held on 28 September, 2017  at 1.40 p.m. Venue: Shabolovka 28/11, room 1302.

Speaker:  Tatiana KOSSOVA,  Associate Professor of our Department.

 Her presentation's topic: " Investigating the volume and structure of alcohol consumption in Russian regions"

Abstract:
"Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine macroeconomic factors that are significantly related to
consumption of various alcoholic beverages in Russia.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors consider 78 Russian regions for the period from 2008 to
2012. Data were collected from the Federal State Statistics Service of Russia. The authors investigate
differences in the volume and structure of consuming absolute alcohol in aggregate, vodka, beer, and wine.
Estimating fixed effect panel models enables us to reveal the relationship between alcohol consumption and
the set of macroeconomic factors that include economic development of regions and living standards,
the effect of unemployment, and the degree of urbanization.
Findings – Alcohol consumption is procyclical in Russia. Two main alcoholic beverages in Russia are vodka
and beer. Economic development and urbanization of regions are positively related to consuming alcohol.
Unemployment rate affects consumption of different types of alcoholic drinks in a different way. For absolute
alcohol, vodka and beer, this relationship is negative. However, it is positive for wine. The effect of
unemployment on absolute alcohol and vodka increases over time. For beer, it is remained unchanged.
For wine, this effect weakens over time.
Originality/value – To the authors knowledge, the paper is the first one to analyze macro-level factors of
consumption of different alcoholic beverages in Russia. Conclusions made on aggregate macroeconomic data
add to understanding of drinking patterns in Russia as a country with the large territory and great regional
variations. Findings can be used for correcting the alcohol policy at the national and regional level".

Keywords:  Russia, Beer, Alcohol consumption, Inter-regional differences, Vodka

related paper JES-07-2015-0118.pdf