Agent Based Model of Alcohol Taxation and Rates of Violent Victimization

Kerry Keyes and colleagues recently published the results of an agent-based modeling simulation of the effects of alcohol taxation on alcohol consumption and non-fatal violent victimization and homicide in New York City.  The team simulated six examples of taxation interventions and the heterogeneous effects of alcohol price elasticities by income, level of consumption and beverage preferences, and examined whether taxation can reduce alcohol-related violence and income-related inequalities in this form of violence. The figure below shows the relations between agent, social network and neighborhood characteristics that were simulated in their agent‐based model. The simulations suggest that reductions in alcohol consumption in New York City can be sustained with modest increases in alcohol taxation (10% tax) and that these tax increases would have modest effects on alcohol-related violent crime.

A primer on agent-based model simulations was published here and an another example on how weight stigma may influence depression in the obese is here.

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