THE TAIL OF THE ALCOHOL-CONSUMPTION DISTRIBUTION

The consumption containment rate (CCR), proposed by Taylor as a way of characterizing the upper tail of the alcohol consumption distribution, is analyzed and estimated from a collection of data sets from different countries. It is found that CCR curves for different countries are highly different at low consumption levels. However, at high consumption levels, they are remarkably similar across cultures. It is proposed that this may be due to cross-cultural similarities in heavy drinking careers.