Seminar: Genes, pubs, and drinks
Gene-environment interplay and alcohol licensing policy in the United Kingdom
The Centre for Health Economics at Monash Business School invites you to the research webinar ‘Genes, Pubs, and Drinks: Gene-environment interplay and alcohol licensing policy in the United Kingdom,’ presented by Dr Pietro Biroli from the University of Zurich.
Are we genetically destined to behave poorly, or can a well-designed policy and a nurturing environment prevail over our instincts?
This paper analyzes the interplay of public policy and individuals' genetic endowments, demonstrating how people's genetic propensity to drink moderates their consumption behavior in response to changes in alcohol availability and licensing policy. We combine data from the UK Biobank with geo-coded data on pubs and retailers, as well as data on alcohol licensing from local authorities in England and Wales. This allows us to construct a fine-grained measure of local alcohol availability for each one of the approximately 500,000 participants in the UK Biobank.
Our results show that individuals with a high genetic propensity to drink select into environments with easier access to alcohol, react less to changes in the availability of alcohol, and respond less to restrictive licensing. Thus, we show that supply-focused licensing policy to mitigate alcohol abuse can clash with individual predispositions and might exacerbate genetic inequality, suggesting the need for a more targeted approach.
Presenter
Pietro Biroli is an assistant professor of Economics at the University of Zurich. He obtained his PhD in economics from the University of Chicago. He is also affiliated to the UBS Center of Economics in Society, and research affiliate at the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development at UZH, IZA, fRDB, and HCEO.
Pietro’s research focuses on the early origins and life cycle evolution of health and human capital. Specifically, he explores the importance of genetics, family investment, and childhood interventions in explaining health and economic inequality. While genetic endowments are fixed at birth, they can influence decisions such as healthy behaviors or investments in human capital, and interact with features of the social and economic environment. By changing the environment, targeted interventions and optimal choices of investments can reduce the risk associated with carrying certain genetic variants.
CHE seminar series
At the Centre for Health Economics, we are working on running as many of our seminars as possible online while COVID-19 remains an obstacle to getting together. As we will be working with experts and colleagues in other parts of the world there will be some movement in the times and days that seminars run to take into account different time zones and availabilities. If you would like to be on our seminar email list, please be directly in contact by email to shannon.stanwell@monash.edu.
Hope to see you there!
Event Details
- Date:
- 30 September 2020 at 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
- Venue:
- This seminar will take place via Zoom - please email shannon.stanwell@monash.edu to register
- Categories:
- Health Economics
Description
Gene-environment interplay and alcohol licensing policy in the United Kingdom
The Centre for Health Economics at Monash Business School invites you to the research webinar ‘Genes, Pubs, and Drinks: Gene-environment interplay and alcohol licensing policy in the United Kingdom,’ presented by Dr Pietro Biroli from the University of Zurich.
Are we genetically destined to behave poorly, or can a well-designed policy and a nurturing environment prevail over our instincts?
This paper analyzes the interplay of public policy and individuals' genetic endowments, demonstrating how people's genetic propensity to drink moderates their consumption behavior in response to changes in alcohol availability and licensing policy. We combine data from the UK Biobank with geo-coded data on pubs and retailers, as well as data on alcohol licensing from local authorities in England and Wales. This allows us to construct a fine-grained measure of local alcohol availability for each one of the approximately 500,000 participants in the UK Biobank.
Our results show that individuals with a high genetic propensity to drink select into environments with easier access to alcohol, react less to changes in the availability of alcohol, and respond less to restrictive licensing. Thus, we show that supply-focused licensing policy to mitigate alcohol abuse can clash with individual predispositions and might exacerbate genetic inequality, suggesting the need for a more targeted approach.
Presenter
Pietro Biroli is an assistant professor of Economics at the University of Zurich. He obtained his PhD in economics from the University of Chicago. He is also affiliated to the UBS Center of Economics in Society, and research affiliate at the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development at UZH, IZA, fRDB, and HCEO.
Pietro’s research focuses on the early origins and life cycle evolution of health and human capital. Specifically, he explores the importance of genetics, family investment, and childhood interventions in explaining health and economic inequality. While genetic endowments are fixed at birth, they can influence decisions such as healthy behaviors or investments in human capital, and interact with features of the social and economic environment. By changing the environment, targeted interventions and optimal choices of investments can reduce the risk associated with carrying certain genetic variants.
CHE seminar series
At the Centre for Health Economics, we are working on running as many of our seminars as possible online while COVID-19 remains an obstacle to getting together. As we will be working with experts and colleagues in other parts of the world there will be some movement in the times and days that seminars run to take into account different time zones and availabilities. If you would like to be on our seminar email list, please be directly in contact by email to shannon.stanwell@monash.edu.
Hope to see you there!