Our results suggest that a 20% increase in cigarette price would be associated with a nearly 2% reduction in per capita alcohol consumption, or that the adoption of a complete statewide ban on smoking in bars, restaurants and worksites, relative to no restrictions, would reduce per capita alcohol consumption by about 6–7%. It is important to note that these estimates are averaged across the entire population—not just smokers. Tobacco policies might limit alcohol consumption primarily among smokers and “would-be” smokers, that is, those who were prevented from initiation as a result of tobacco control policies (Young-Wolff et al., 2013; Young-Wolff et al., 2014). If this is the case, then effects of tobacco policies on individual-level alcohol consumption among the population at risk for smoking would be substantially larger than those estimated for the population as a whole.
