Studies on Alcohol Consumption during Recessions?

Interesting topic, and relevant! A Reuters article claims sales of alcohol increase during recessions, and that sales are up now (1). I've number the URLs, hope I've made it clear which one is which.

The best bet I found for looking at cycles of alcohol consumption and economic fluctuations was in the Journal of Health Economics, 1999. It critiques and refines a 1995 study: Rhum Ruhm, C.J. , 1995. Economic conditions and alcohol problems.

Journal of Health Economics 14, 583–603. One article explores the relationship between economic conditions and alcohol consumption (5) from 1975-1988. There is an academic article from Finland discussing social class during economic fluctuations that addresses increases in alcohol related deaths (2) that may be of some help.

Another article from Finland discusses "associations between suicide mortality, unemployment, divorce rate and mean alcohol consumption during an economic cycle". Both articles cover the 1985-1995 time period.(6Another article from Addiction may offer some competing explanations or confirm the relationship - hard to tell from the abstract (4).

Use Google Scholar to find the kind of articles you want, for example:tinyurl.com/brmy52Some of the articles this turns up are:"A Note on Economic Conditions and Alcohol Problems":tinyurl.com/bmx3n9And these more studies in particular countries:http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/79/10/1366http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/27/4/623http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/10/4/274http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/8/1/21http://psychsoc.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/56/1/S3.

The following is a link to a Finland study: ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstr....

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.