William C. Kerr

Alcohol Research Group

William C. Kerr, PhD
Scientific Director; Senior Scientist; Center Director; T32 Training Program Director
wkerr@arg.org 510-898-5841
External Bios: Google Scholar Link
RESEARCH FOCUS
Methodology of alcohol use measurement; trends in U.S. alcohol consumption; the underlying causes and relationships between alcohol use and health outcomes; health disparities; secondhand harms from alcohol and other substances; economic conditions and alcohol problems; alcohol control policy and policy evaluation; cannabis policy.

Areas of Expertise

FEATURED PROJECTS

National Alcohol Research Center Administrative Core (A Center Core Component)

Director

Epidemiology of Alcohol Problems: Disparities in alcohol-related risks for injury, diabetes and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality (A Center Research Component)

Principal Investigator

Quality Substitution Among Heavy and AUD Drinkers and Alcohol Tax Policy

Co-Investigator

Alcohol Beverage Tax Rates

Principal Investigator

Epidemiological Analysis of the National Alcohol Survey (A Center Research Component)

Component Director

Alcohol Consumption & Mortality in the US 1950-2000

Principal Investigator

Alcohol's Harms to Others among US Adults: Individual and Contextual Effects

Co-Investigator

Malt Liquor/Fortified Wine Use and Ethnicity in the U.S.

Co-Investigator

Inter-relationships Between Life-course Alcohol Patterns and Health Conditions

Principal Investigator

Epidemiology of Alcohol Problems: National Alcohol Research Center

Associate Director

Drinking Patterns & Ethnicity: Impact on Mortality Risks

Co-Investigator

Economic Contraction and Alcohol-related Suicides: A Multi-level Analysis

Co-Investigator

The Effects of Privatization of Alcohol Control Systems

Principal Investigator

Effects of Spirits Privatization on Alcohol Prices and Alcohol-Related Harms

Principal Investigator

Alcohol and Pregnancy: Do State-level Punitive and Supportive Policies Matter?

Co-Investigator

Calibrated Agent Simulations for Combined Analysis of Drinking Etiologies (CASCADE)

Sub-contract PI

Secondhand Harms from Alcohol & Drugs: Impacts on Families and Communities across the US

Principal Investigator

National Alcohol Surveys (NAS) Resources (A Center Core Component)

Co-Lead

Impacts of Recreational Marijuana Legalization and Retail Outlets in Washington

Principal Investigator

A Microsimulation of Alcohol Control Interventions to Advance Health Equity and Reverse the Current Decrease in Life Expectancy in the US

Sub-contract PI

Alcohol and Pregnancy: Do State-level Punitive and Supportive Policies Matter?

Co-Investigator

Understanding longitudinal relationships between COVID-19 pandemic outcomes and alcohol use and problems

Co-Investigator

National Alcohol Surveys: Advancing Epidemiologic Analyses of 21st Century Drinking

Co-Lead

High-Intensity Drinking over the Life Course

Co-Investigator

Health Disparities in Alcohol Use and Other Risk Behaviors after the Onset of Cancers and Cardiovascular Disease-Related Conditions

Co-Lead

PUBLICATIONS

See All Publications

Quantifying risk of injury from usual alcohol consumption: An instrumental variable analysis

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2021

Extending the harm to others paradigm: comparing marijuana- and alcohol-attributed harms in Washington State

Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 2021

Trends and disparities in American Indian/Alaska Native unintentional injury mortality from 1999 to 2016

Injury Prevention, 2020

Lifetime alcohol use patterns and risk of diabetes onset in the National Alcohol Survey

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2019

New estimates of the mean ethanol content of beer, wine, and spirits sold in the United States show a greater increase in per capita alcohol consumption than previous estimates

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2019

Changes in spirits purchasing behaviours after privatisation of government-controlled sales in Washington, USA.

Drug and Alcohol Review, 2019

Spirits purchasing and marijuana use behaviors of risky drinkers in the state of Washington from 2014 to 2016.

Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2019

Survey estimates of changes in alcohol use patterns following the 2012 privatization of the Washington liquor monopoly

Alcohol and Alcoholism, 2018

Associations between state‐level policies regarding alcohol use among pregnant women, adverse birth outcomes, and prenatal care utilization

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2018

Changes in marijuana use across the 2012 Washington state recreational legalization: Is retrospective assessment of use before legalization more accurate?

Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 2018

Alcohol use patterns and risk of diabetes onset in the 1979 national longitudinal survey of youth cohort

Preventative Medicine, 2018

Trends and age, period and cohort effects for marijuana use prevalence in the 1984 to 2015 US National Alcohol Surveys

Addiction, 2018

Health risk factors associated with lifetime abstinence from alcohol in the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Cohort

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2017

Early life health, trauma and social determinants of lifetime abstention from alcohol

Alcohol and Alcoholism, 2016

Changes in heavy drinking following onset of health problems in a U.S. general population sample

Preventive Medicine, 2016

Estimated increase in cross-border purchases by Washington residents following liquor privatization and implications for alcohol consumption trends

Addiction, 2016

Marijuana policy opinions in Washington state since legalization: would voters vote the same way?

Contemporary Drug Problems, 2016

Opinions on the privatization of distilled-spirits in Washington State: did voters change their minds?

Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 2016

Relationship of usual volume and heavy consumption to risk of alcohol-related injury: racial/ethnic disparities in four U.S. National Alcohol Surveys

Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 2016

Racial/ethnic disparities in the risk of injury related to the frequency of heavy drinking occasions

Alcohol and Alcoholism, 2015

Analysis of price changes in Washington following the 2012 liquor privatization

Alcohol and Alcoholism, 2015

Simultaneous versus concurrent use of alcohol and cannabis in the National Alcohol Survey

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2015

Racial/ethnic disparities in the self-reported number of drinks in 2 hours before driving becomes impaired

American Journal of Public Health, 2015

Test-retest reliability and validity of life-course alcohol consumption measures: the 2005 National Alcohol Survey follow-up

Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 2014

US trends in light, moderate and heavy drinking episodes from 2000 to 2010

Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 2014

U.S. Alcohol Affordability and Real Tax Rates, 1950 – 2011

American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 2013

Are the 1976-1985 birth cohorts heavier drinkers? Age-period-cohort analyses of the National Alcohol Surveys 1979-2010

Addiction, 2013