Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Weighs in on Why Gen Z Is Drinking Less Alcohol

Economist Alvin E. Roth speaking in a 2018 panel at the Mexican Center for Kidney Donation. (Photo: Agencia EL UNIVERSAL/Alejandra Leyva/EELG (GDA via AP Images))

Younger consumers’ drinking habits have been the focus of much attention over the past few years. Statistics have painted a broad picture of an alcohol industry in crisis, driven in part by a declining interest in liquor among the Gen Z cohort. Though the numbers don’t always add up (do they ever?), the prevailing hypothesis is that the 18 to 34 crowd is trading alcohol for cannabis, screen time and a bevvy of wellness-oriented goals.

On a recent episode of “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard,” economist Alvin E. Roth chimed in with some insight. A Nobel Prize-winner, Stanford professor and author of “Moral Economics,” Roth chatted with the hosts about alcohol’s perceived role as a social drug — a possible disadvantage in an era when younger people are staying in more than ever. Hosts Shepard and Monica Padman mused about other potential causes, before Roth interjected that there “might be multiple explanations.”

“There’s no question that a lot of things are affected by social norms. But social norms aren’t things that we know very much about how to change. You can’t legislate them; they seem to change slowly,” Roth said.

“One thing that’s driving it down is that there used to be some thought that alcohol had protective properties, you know, that drinking red wine was good for you,” he continued.

Health benefits, and the lack thereof, have certainly played a role in the larger alcohol discourse. A 2025 report from the U.S. Surgeon General suggested that alcohol consumption was linked to at least seven types of cancer, placing alcohol as the third-leading preventable cause of cancer in the country behind tobacco and obesity. Though the findings have yet to be included in official guidelines, they reflect a growing consensus in the scientific community. Later that year, the World Health Organization encouraged countries to hike the tax on alcohol by 50% over the next decade, reiterating its claim that “no level of alcohol consumption is safe” for human health.

In addition to health concerns, Roth believes that a generational divide may be at play.

“But I think there are these cycles that are generational, too. In other words, if your grandparents drank cocktails, then your parents drank wine, and now you’re smoking weed,” Roth added.

That cannabis and THC products are being legalized across the country at the same time that alcohol sales are slumping is likely no coincidence. Approximately 69% of adults ages 18 to 24 said they prefer cannabis to alcohol in a 2022 stuspecdy conducted by New Frontier Data. Recent data suggests that Gen Z accounted for just 4% of U.S. alcohol sales in 2025, compared to 25% for Millennials and 70% for Gen X and baby boomers.

Find the full conversation with Roth below: