Title: Empirical relation between unemployment and alcohol beverage consumption in Korea

Authors: Myeong Hwan Kim; Yongseung Han; Won-Gil Cho

Addresses: Department of Economics, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, 2101 E. Coliseum Boulevard, Fort Wayne, IN 46805, USA ' Department of Economics and Finance, University of North Georgia, 1201 Bishop Farms Pkwy, Watkinsville, GA 30677, USA ' Department of International Trade, Namseoul University, 91 Daehak-ro, Seonghwan-eup, Seobuk-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, Korea

Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between the consumption of popular alcoholic beverages and a macroeconomic variable, unemployment, in the Republic of Korea. This study uses data for South Korea from 1994 to 2013. The authors examine how alcohol consumption habits change with fluctuations in the unemployment rate. Granger casual models will be applied to those relationships where there are significant correlations to determine whether economic activity causes drinking. The results from this analysis indicate substantial causal interactions between unemployment rate and drinking behaviour. Based upon our result, we suggest some policy implications: government spending on the prevention and education of alcohol misuse, retraining of unemployed workers and a higher tax on alcohol beverages.

Keywords: unemployment; alcohol consumption; macroeconomic conditions; granger causality.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2018.093369

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2018 Vol.16 No.1, pp.1 - 11

Received: 31 Jan 2017
Accepted: 13 Apr 2017
Published online: 25 Jul 2018 *

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