CARPE DIEM
Professor Mark J. Perry's Blog for Economics and Finance
Sunday, May 03, 2009
About Me
- Name: Mark J. Perry
- Location: Washington, D.C., United States
Dr. Mark J. Perry is a professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan. Perry holds two graduate degrees in economics (M.A. and Ph.D.) from George Mason University near Washington, D.C. In addition, he holds an MBA degree in finance from the Curtis L. Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. In addition to a faculty appointment at the University of Michigan-Flint, Perry is also a visiting scholar at The American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.
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17 Comments:
We's got some catchin' up to do!
Yee hah!
This is surprising, being a Canadian I thought we'd be in the black for sure !
Good work Mr. Perry, many thanks !
PS: BlogDog, I pray you're not serious about catching up !?!
I wouldn't want to wish my illness nor my late husbands on anyone !
According to Guinness World Records, the tiny country of Luxembourg (black dot between France and Germany) consumes the most alcohol per capita. But this isn't an actual phenomenon, because the low taxes on alcohol, cigarettes and gas mean that Belgians, French and Germans living close to the border come over to buy these products, thus increasing sales without being counted as consumers.
I wonder if there is a similar map to see drunk driving rates or as Sheila alludes to, Alcoholism rates, so that we could compare these maps and maybe derive over-arching assumptions on policy differences amongst countries. I wonder if we would see Europe have fewer, even while drinking more, since it is seen as less taboo, or the opposite? We might would need another quantifier, how taboo it is seen in each country, and how restrictive the laws are.
We of course would have to account for certain smaller countries rates being skewed as Gherald mentions.
Sheila,
I'm all about the snark. I overeat, not overdrink.
I am pretty shocked that France, Germany and the U.K. drink more per capita than Russia!! There must be an error here, like they are only counting alchohol sales, which would miss the home made stuff. Crushing poverty in much of Russia probably skews the results, and radiator fluid is not being included . . .
Hmm, after thinking about this more, I realized what the problem might be. This chart is parsed by volume of beverage, not by actual alcoholic content. Western Europe drinks lots of wine and beer, Easter and Southern Europe drink lots of very strong liquor, and wine and beer, which skews the results from what I would expect. The chart would be more revealing, or at least reveal something else, if we normalized for alcohol content.
I should have said I am assuming they used volume of alcoholic beverages. The chart just says liters of alcohol.
I fucking hate being color blind. What does this say now?
Did I miss something, or are we missing a key piece of information: litres per capita per [PERIOD OF TIME]. Of course the data are still meaningful for purposes of comparison, but it's hard to ascribe anything real to data if you don't explain what they mean.
Thanks!
Apparently the map was made based on 1994 data from the WHO. Source data is here:
http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_status_report_2004_overview.pdf
The liters/year refer to liters of pure alcohol, so the amounts are standardized.
Sorry, meant 2004.
...and those are just the official datas ... Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Enirates and other muslim countries don't give away their true numbers tothe world .
It seems infact that SAUDI Arabia is "unofficially" the biggest consumer of wiskey in the world (per capita and in relation to its small pupulation ...aorund 16M)
comments welcome ....
Mohammad
The Irish are the world's #2 beer consumers after the Czech Republic but are not among the top 20 Sprits and Wine consumers*. The Irish also have a disproportionate 22% abstainers compared to 6% in France. The Irish are also trending away from beer to wine, which may help in the long run. Small consolation, but something for a country battling deep cultural forces that empower destructive traditions.
*According to the source (Table #4):
http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_status_report_2004_overview.pdf
In a small country like Ireland where tourism is a major part of the economy wouldn't a significant portion of the drinking be done by the non Irish. I never heard of anyone going to Ireland to not drink.
Maybe the chart should also take in account the age of the population. "Older" countries in Europe have presumably a larger fraction of alcohol drinkers than countries with younger populations. Taking only population above say 12 or 15 years old would probably change the picture significantly.
Of course this ignores other sources of info like the WHO or who have their own figures (put in table by a third party for you here, 2004 figures):
http://www.greenfacts.org/en/alcohol/toolboxes/table3.htm
This is litres of PURE alcohol. But it is still only an estimate. It is also well known that FRANCE has the highest ALCOHOLISM rate in the world, that is the most drunks, but Russia doesn't lag far behind and the UK isn't doing so well either. Countries like Germany have a higher per capita rate because they tend to drink constant amounts where as countries like the UK will go on binges and have alcoholics, but to say alcohol was a bigger problem in Germany than the UK would be foolish.
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