A number of recent studies have used individual-level data to focus on alcohol demand by youths and young adults, who are considered at particularly high risk for alcohol problems. One study used survey data from the national Monitoring the Future (MTF) Study of high school seniors to explore the determinants of alcoholic beverage demand among young adults (Grossman et al. 1998). This study followed more than 7,000 people from 1976 to 1985 and tested an innovative theory of the demand for addictive goods (Becker and Murphy 1988). Previous research had accounted for habit formation by exploring past consumption of alcohol as a possible determinant—through acquired taste or addiction—of current consumption (see, for example, Andrikopoulos et al. 1997). The Becker and Murphy theory of addiction posits that consumers may anticipate that their current use of alcohol will influence their future demand for it. If so, expected future consumption is also a possible determinant of current alcohol demand, and factors that can be anticipated to affect future consumption also have an impact on current consumption choices. The policy implication of this theory
