In contrast, another study found that beer taxes have a relatively small and statistically insignificant effect on teen drinking (Dee 1999). Using data from the MTF Study for 1977 through 1992, Dee examined the effects of minimum legal drinking age laws and beer taxes on the prevalence of teen drinking in three categories (1 or more drinks in the past month, 10 or more drinks in the past month, 5 or more drinks in a row in the past 2 weeks). The results suggested that raising the legal drinking age above 18 significantly reduced the number of high school seniors in each drinking category. However, within-State comparisons found beer tax rates to have no significant effect in reducing these drinking rates. Additional research is needed to clarify how taxes and other factors affect various patterns of drinking among different groups.
