Legalization of Sunday alcohol sales and alcohol consumption in the United States

Abstract

Aims: To investigate the relationship between legalization of Sunday alcohol sales and alcohol consumption in the United States.

Design: State-level per capita consumption of beer, wine and spirits was analyzed using difference-in-differences econometric methods.

Setting: United States.

Participants: Five treatment states that repealed their laws restricting Sunday alcohol sales during 1990-2007 and 12 control states that retained their Sunday alcohol laws during the same period.

Measurements: Outcome measures are state-level per capita consumption of overall alcohol, beer, wine and spirits.

Findings: Among the states that legalized Sunday sales of alcoholic beverages, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Mexico experienced significant increases in overall alcohol consumption (P < 0.05). However, the effect of the legalization of Sunday alcohol sales in Massachusetts and Rhode Island on per capita alcohol consumption was insignificant (P = 0.964 and P = 0.367).

Conclusions: Three out of five states in the United States that repealed their laws restricting Sunday sale of alcoholic beverages during 1990-2007 experienced significant increases in per capita alcohol consumption. This finding implies that increased alcohol availability leads to an increase in alcohol consumption.

Keywords: Alcohol consumption; Sunday alcohol sales; United States; difference‐in‐differences; health policy; panel data.