The legal drinking age is 18 in Abu Dhabi (although a Ministry of Tourism regulation allows hotels to serve alcohol only to people over 21) and 21 in Dubai and the Northern Emirates (except Sharjah, where alcohol consumption is prohibited). [113] In all European countries, the legal drinking age is below this age of about 15 to 20 years. Here`s a closer look at the legal drinking age in European countries and whether a younger or older drinking age is generally beneficial to society. In the 1970s, provincial and state policymakers in Canada and the United States switched to lower MLDAs (which were set at 21 in most provinces, territories and states) to coincide with the age of judicial majority – usually 18. As a result, MLDAs have been reduced in all Canadian provinces [and] in more than half of U.S. states. In Canada, however, two provinces, Ontario (1979) and Saskatchewan (1976), rapidly increased their subsequent AOMLs from ages 18 to 19 in response to some studies showing a link between lowering the drinking age and increasing alcohol-related harms among adolescents and young adults, including increases in motor vehicle crashes and alcohol poisoning among high school students. Following the reduction of AMRs in the United States, research conducted in several states provided convincing evidence of a sharp increase in fatal and non-fatal traffic accident rates that occurred immediately after the introduction of a lower age for drinking. These scientific discoveries increased public pressure on legislators to increase MLDAs, and in response, the federal government introduced the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, which required a reduction in highway funding for states if they did not increase their MLDA to 21. All states complied and introduced a 21-year MLDA in 1988.

[39] What explains this sharp increase in alcohol abuse at age 16? We have two mechanisms in mind: access and risk perception. To assess the importance of access, we first use new data from a mystery shopping study in Upper Austria, where underage mystery shoppers visit retail stores and try to buy alcohol. Out of 4,269 purchase attempts, about 23% were successful. As a result, only three-quarters of retailers comply with the MLDA regulations, which may indicate an enforcement issue. When we aggregate these trials at the municipal level and merge socio-economic data, we find that socio-economic composition is not correlated with retailer compliance. This is consistent with the observation that there is no difference in binge drinking between children from different socioeconomic backgrounds before the age of 16. Also in the ESPAD survey, 84% of 15-year-olds perceive access to alcohol as “easy” or “fairly easy”. Taken together, these results suggest that lack of access to alcohol can hardly explain the effectiveness of MLDA legislation.

There is a large literature on the effects of MLA on various outcomes, such as alcohol and drug use (e.g. Carpenter Dobkin Warman 2016, Crost & Rees 2013), mortality (e.g., Carpenter & Dobkin, 2009), crime (e.g., Carpenter & Dobkin, 2015), impaired driving (e.g., Miron & Tetelbaum, 2007), and school education (e.g., Lindo et al., 2013). Most of these studies are based on U.S. or Canadian data with elevated MLDA. We complement this literature by studying excessive alcohol consumption among adolescents in Austria, which has an MLDA of 16 years (Ahammer et al. 2021). Austria is particularly interesting because it is one of the countries with the highest alcohol consumption in the world (see Figure 1). In addition, we can rely on an excellent data pool in Austria. We use both high-quality survey data and administrative health registries, allowing us to take a closer look at the socioeconomic gradient of binge drinking and the mechanisms underlying MLDA legislation. Some states do not allow people under the legal drinking age in liquor stores or bars (generally, the difference between a bar and a restaurant is that food is only served in the latter). Contrary to popular belief, only a few states prohibit minors and young adults from consuming alcohol in private places.