Evaluating Econometric Studies of Alcohol Advertising

OBJECTIVE: This article provides a guide for the behavioral scientist to understand and judge econometric studies of alcohol advertising. METHOD: The requirements for causal evidence in an econometric study include an empirical scenario in which alcohol advertising is not affected by alcohol consumption and in which both consumption and advertising are not affected by a common third variable. The articles included in this review were a sampling of older studies to illustrate the problems with these studies and newer studies, not covered by existing reviews, which try to directly address causality. RESULTS: The results from many prior studies are suspect by current econometric standards. However, a few newer econometric studies address causality and find a small positive effect of alcohol advertising on consumption. CONCLUSIONS: Many prior studies and some newer studies of alcohol advertising in the econometric literature have not addressed causality, and the results from these studies should be considered as descriptive only.