Urban Mortality and the Repeal of Federal Prohibition / David S. Jacks, Krishna Pendakur, Hitoshi Shigeoka.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jacks, David S.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Pendakur, Krishna.

Shigeoka, Hitoshi.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w28181.

NBER working paper series no. w28181

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2020.

Summary:

Federal prohibition was one of the most ambitious policy interventions in US history. However, the removal of restrictions on alcohol after 1933 was not uniform. Using a new balanced panel on annual deaths, we find that city-level repeal is associated with a 11.6% decrease in the rate of death by non-automobile accidents, a category which critically include accidental poisonings. We relate this finding to a large literature which emphasizes - but never precisely quantifies - the mortality effects of adulterated alcohol during federal prohibition. Thus, repeal likely led to a large annual reduction in accidental poisonings. However, combined with previous results showing even larger increases in infant mortality, repeal nonetheless likely had negative contemporaneous effects on public health.

Notes:

Print version record

December 2020.