The effect of alcohol sales restrictions on alcohol poisoning mortality: Evidence from Russia

This paper examines the tough anti-alcohol legislation recently introduced in Russia, which due to regional variation allows it to be used as a natural experiment. The effect of the restricted trading hours on alcoholic poisoning mortality is estimated. To establish a causal link, difference-in-differences and synthetic controls are used. The main conclusion is that the sales restrictions lead to higher alcohol poisoning mortality, which implies that more toxic alcohol surrogates serve as substitutes for commercially available alcohol.

Automated summary

This study examines the impact of tough anti-alcohol legislation in Russia and finds that restricted trading hours lead to higher alcohol poisoning mortality, indicating that toxic alcohol substitutes are used as replacements for commercially available alcohol.