The Economic Impact of Changes in Alcohol Consumption in the UK

Connolly, Kevin and Lisenkova, Katerina and McGregor, Peter (2018) The Economic Impact of Changes in Alcohol Consumption in the UK. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

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Abstract

The alcohol industry (both manufacturing and sales) is important to the UK Economy as it supports thousands of jobs (IAS, 2017a; Oxford Economics, 2016). However, there are many well documented adverse effects of high alcohol consumption, most notably on public health. With the UK having one of the highest alcohol consumption rates in the world, recent Government policy has sought to address some of this harm. Changes in policy and social attitudes may result in changes in UK alcohol consumption. The focus of this report is to examine the potential macroeconomic impact from changes in UK alcohol consumption. Previous studies (WTSA, 2013) have investigated the gross impacts resulting from changes in consumption – that is, the impact of the alcohol sector without considering reallocation of spending to other goods and services. This report extends the literature and investigates the net impacts by including the redistribution of both household and government income.