Economic and Demographic Determinants of Demand for Alcohol: The Case of Malaysia

The objective of this study is to investigate factors that affect the decisions of Malaysian adults to consume alcohol. This study used the Third National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS III) which has 30,992 respondents. The results from the study suggested that age, income, gender, ethnicity, education, location of residence and employment status have significant effects on alcohol consumption. In particular, younger individuals, higher income earners, males, Chinese, the well-educated, urban dwellers, civil servants, private sector employees, the self-employed and students are associated with a higher likelihood of consuming alcohol. The findings from this study call for several anti-alcohol intervention strategies.