The study found consistent evidence that increases in the price of alcohol resulting from higher monetary prices significantly reduced the number of alcoholic drinks consumed by young adults in the past year. Moreover, the analyses provided strong evidence that drinking in this age group is addictive in the sense that a strong interdependency existed among past, current, and future alcohol consumption. That is, current drinking decisions depended on past alcohol consumption and influenced future consumption. These findings are generally consistent with studies employing data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to estimate alcohol demand using a model that also accounts for the addictive nature of alcohol consumption.
