Several studies examined the effects of alcohol regulation on violence and crime using individual-level data. Markowitz and Grossman (1998) focused their analysis on child abuse, using data from the 1976 National Family Violence Survey on children residing in two-parent families. The study estimated the effects on violent outcomes of a variety of factors, including the State excise tax rate on beer, illegal drug prices, marijuana decriminalization, laws restricting alcohol advertising, per capita number of outlets licensed to sell alcohol, and demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the parents. The results demonstrated that increases in the beer tax can be an effective policy tool in reducing child abuse. Thus, a 10-percent increase in the excise tax on beer was estimated to reduce the probabilities of overall child abuse and severe child abuse by 1.2 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively. Furthermore, such an increase was estimated to reduce unconditional overall child abuse (i.e., a measure of child abuse that includes the frequency of the abuse) by about 2.1 percent. Even such a seemingly small reduction in child abuse rates could have a dramatic
