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The paper investigates changes in consumption of pure alcohol, vodka, beer, wine and fortified wine by neighboring age classes of Russians.

Data source is the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey – HSE from 2000 to 2017. Age groups are those born in 1934 and older, in 1935–1944 and further with a 10-years interval till the group of 1985 and younger. The amount of consumed alcohol is estimated with Heckman model. LR-test is used to determine the similarity of alcohol consumption behavior of age groups. Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition presents the difference in the average level of alcohol consumption among two neighboring age classes with the explained and unexplained parts.

Male and female respondents from the group (1985+) drink significantly less absolute alcohol than the previous age class born in 1975–1984. Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition shows that an increase in absolute alcohol consumption for women and a decrease in absolute alcohol consumption for men come from the unexplained difference of consumption volumes. Policy measures should be targeted on the prevention of excessive alcohol consumption among Russian women since they demonstrate an increase in the consumption of vodka, beer and fortified wine from one generation to another.

For the first time, the paper presents decomposition of changes in alcohol consumption volumes for neighboring age groups of Russians. The change in consumption volumes might be due to the change of objective characteristics of individuals and unobservable factors like the influence of advertising, government policy and the entry of new alcohol producers into the market.

The purpose of this paper is to examine macroeconomic factors that are significantly related to consumption of various alcoholic beverages in Russia.

The authors consider 78 Russian regions for the period from 2008 to 2012. Data were collected from the Federal State Statistics Service of Russia. The authors investigate differences in the volume and structure of consuming absolute alcohol in aggregate, vodka, beer, and wine. Estimating fixed effect panel models enables us to reveal the relationship between alcohol consumption and the set of macroeconomic factors that include economic development of regions and living standards, the effect of unemployment, and the degree of urbanization.

Alcohol consumption is procyclical in Russia. Two main alcoholic beverages in Russia are vodka and beer. Economic development and urbanization of regions are positively related to consuming alcohol. Unemployment rate affects consumption of different types of alcoholic drinks in a different way. For absolute alcohol, vodka and beer, this relationship is negative. However, it is positive for wine. The effect of unemployment on absolute alcohol and vodka increases over time. For beer, it is remained unchanged. For wine, this effect weakens over time.

To the authors knowledge, the paper is the first one to analyze macro-level factors of consumption of different alcoholic beverages in Russia. Conclusions made on aggregate macroeconomic data add to understanding of drinking patterns in Russia as a country with the large territory and great regional variations. Findings can be used for correcting the alcohol policy at the national and regional level.

This article aims to investigate the role of socioeconomic factors and individual time preferences in the demand for fast-food in Russia. An individual discount rate shows the ability of a person to postpone utility from consumption to future periods.

An individual discount rate is measured through a hypothetical money experiment. The database is the special survey of the Levada analytical center conducted in 2017. Multivariate probit model enables the authors to consider the possible endogeneity of individual discount rate and reveal the relationship between socioeconomic factors and frequent fast-food consumption.

Results show that a higher individual discount rate is related to frequent consumption of fast-food. At the same time, there are factors that provoke both a higher individual discount rate and the refusal of frequent consumption of fast-food. Findings advise the prioritization of measures highlighting the short-term benefits of healthy eating and the short-term costs of avoiding it.

To the authors' knowledge, this article is the first one which presents comprehensive investigation of microeconomic factors of fast-food consumption in Russia including individual time preferences of consumers.