A good example of this is drunk-driving. One policy measure to tackle the problem is to restrict the freedom in the market. One such way is for the government to take control over the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages. Such alcohol monopolies exist for example in parts of North America and Scandinavia.
This thesis is designed to take a closer look at the pricing policy of such alcohol monopolies to see how these companies try to reach the goals they have. To do this the pricing policies of the alcohol monopolies in Sweden and Quebec are analyzed.
Generally speaking North American alcohol monopolies are found to have tax collection as a main goal, while Scandinavian alcohol monopolies are mainly concerned about improving upon the public health situation.
Because this difference and other factors, alcohol monopolies cannot be judged as a whole. However, a very general conclusion is that alcohol monopolies have a higher price for their products than other free retailers and that especially cheap spirits are relatively expensive in Sweden, which supports their health goals.
Furthermore, the pricing in Quebec raises the question whether this alcohol monopoly acts different than a privately-owned company would.
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