The causal effects of alcohol minimum unit pricing on drinking behaviour in the UK

Summary

This paper evaluates the impact of Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) on alcohol consumption in the UK using a difference-in-differences (DiD) framework, leveraging rich individual-level survey data. We estimate Average Treatment Effects on the Treated (ATET) using both standard and staggered DiD approaches. Although we find no significant change in the share of individuals drinking at least monthly following MUP implementation, we document meaningful reductions in drinking intensity: binge drinking declined by up to 18 percentage points among younger cohorts, and the share of individuals consuming more than two drinks on a typical day also fell significantly. Among those under 25, average weekly alcohol consumption decreased by nearly 34%. These results suggest that while MUP had a limited impact on drinking frequency, it was effective in curbing harmful patterns of alcohol use, particularly among younger individuals.