Eric Crampton and Matt Burgess have a new working paper savaging the methodology of the BERL report (Press release here, Eric’s previous blog posts on the report here). The Abstract:
In March 2009, Business and Economic Research Limited (“BERL”) published “Costs of Harmful Alcohol and Other Drug Use,” a report jointly commissioned by the Ministry of Health and ACC. BERL was asked to measure the costs of drug and alcohol abuse to New Zealand society, but not to evaluate specific interventions. BERL calculated annual social costs of alcohol and illicit drug consumption of $6.8 billion, including $4.8 billion in social costs from alcohol alone. The report was cited by Law Commission President Sir Geoffrey Palmer as evidence in support of greater regulation, gaining considerable media coverage.
We find substantial flaws in BERL’s method that together account for well over 90% of BERL’s calculated costs of alcohol use. Corrected external costs of alcohol use amount to $662 million…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Apr 10, 2016 @ 21:32:44
Note that the workings in there are superseded by the Crampton, Burgess & Taylor 2011 piece.
Click to access 1129.pdf
https://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/read-the-journal/all-issues/2010-2019/2012/vol-125-no-1360/view-crampton
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Apr 10, 2016 @ 22:51:52
Thanks Eric, today I read both the linked paper and the underlying working paper. They are both excellent. The errors in the BERL paper are so many and so bad that it is hard to believe.
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