Recently, the paper Nipping Alcohol or Sipping Coffee: Two Tales of Beverages and Their Industrial Growth in the National Cultural Setting, co-authored by Professor YU Miaojie and Professor Tariq H. Malik from Liaoning University, has been officially accepted for publication by the international leading journal Review of International Economics.
Abstract
Against the backdrop of shifting global consumption patterns, coffee—an energizing beverage linked to productivity—is on the rise, while alcohol consumption is declining amid public health concerns and cultural transformations. This study tests the hypothesis of "coffee consumption substituting for alcohol consumption" and explores how national culture moderates this relationship. At the level of substitution effect, the competitive logic between the two beverages is adopted. At the level of moderating effect, cultural values are treated as contextual variables. Using alcohol consumption in 112 countries as the dependent variable and coffee consumption as the predictor variable, the study constructs a robust cross-country dataset and conducts a multilevel analysis focusing on four cultural dimensions: power distance, individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance. The results show that cultural moderators significantly alter the relationship between coffee and alcohol consumption levels: the coefficients of the interaction terms are statistically significant across different models, nested levels, and after accounting for reverse causality. Despite variations in the magnitude and direction of the coefficients, the moderating effect of culture remains robust. These findings reveal that the global decline in alcohol consumption does not simply stem from a universal pattern of rising coffee demand, but is filtered through culturally embedded norms. The results position national culture as a key institutional dimension shaping industrial trajectories and consumer substitution effects, offering new insights for international economics, public health policies, and cross-cultural marketing strategies.
Journal Profile
Review of International Economics is a bimonthly international economics journal published by Wiley-Blackwell. It focuses on international trade and international finance, covering themes such as economic development, trade and the environment, and political economy. The journal publishes controversial and innovative research findings in the field of international economics, with a particular focus on the relevance between theoretical studies and real-world issues. It accommodates three research paradigms: theoretical modeling, empirical analysis, and policy research, and places special emphasis on the explanatory power of academic results for practical economic problems. According to 2025 statistics, the proportion of internationally co-authored papers reaches 38.75%, and its research scope covers major economies around the world.
Author Profiles
YU Miaojie serves as Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of Liaoning University. He is a Fellow of the International Economic Association (IEA), a Changjiang Distinguished Professor, a recipient of the National Outstanding Youth Fund, an Outstanding Young Scientist of Beijing, and a Boya Distinguished Professor of Peking University. Currently, he holds positions as a Deputy to the 14th National People's Congress and a Specially-invited Supervisor of the National Supervisory Commission. He also acts as an Associate Editor of Economic Journal—a top international journal in economics. He enjoys the Special Government Allowance of the State Council. He is among the top 1% highly cited economists in the global management and economics field, and remains the only Chinese scholar to have ever won the "Royal Economic Society Prize".
Professor Tariq H. Malik holds a PhD in Management from the University of London, UK. He is Director of the International Center for Organization and Innovation Studies (ICOIS) at the Business School of Liaoning University. His research primarily focuses on innovation and technology policy in the field of organization and management. He has published articles in prestigious publications such as Research Policy and International Business Review. He served as a Visiting Scholar at the University of London, UK (2011–2013) and King’s College London, UK (2012–2014). He also works as a peer reviewer for journals including Academy of Management Journal, International Business Review, and R&D Management.
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