The effects of beer taxes on physical child abuse

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of alcohol regulation on physical child abuse. Given the positive relationship between alcohol consumption and violence, and the negative relationship between consumption and price, the principal hypothesis to be tested is that an increase in the price of alcohol will lead to a reduction in the incidence of violence. We also examine the effects of illegal drug prices and alcohol availability on the incidence of child abuse. Equations are estimated separately for mothers and fathers, and include state fixed effects. Results indicate that increases in the beer tax may decrease the incidence of violence committed by females but not by males.