Alcohol consumption and the value of community

Abstract

This article investigates the value of access to alcohol consumption by examining housing price changes after a liquor ban that was catalyzed by an unexpected riot in Singapore. The ban restricts alcohol consumption in liquor control zones further than in areas outside such zones. We find that the housing price changes in the liquor control zones were weak, which implies that the utility and disutility of alcohol consumption almost cancel each other out. In contrast, housing prices increased for houses within 800 m of but outside the liquor control zones. We investigate potential explanations for these phenomena.