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At this time of year, with lots of reasons to go out drinking we often need some excuses to justify our seasonal excess. So what better one that than this, at a time like this?

Social drinking increases your social capital which increases your income. Perfect – "Sorry, I won't be home til late tonight I'm working on a pay rise":

"No Booze You May Lose".  It's a social network analysis study that found that men who socially drink with their coworkers earn, on average, 18% more than those that do not.  The same does not appply to women for various reasons.

We hypothesize that drinking leads to higher earnings by increasing social capital. If drinkers have larger social networks, their earnings should increase. Examining the General Social Survey, we find that self-reported drinkers earn 10-14 percent more than abstainers, which replicates results from other data sets. We then attempt to differentiate between social and nonsocial drinking by comparing the earnings of those who frequent bars at least once per month and those who do not. We find that males who frequent bars at least once per month earn an additional 7 percent on top of the 10 percent drinkers' premium. These results suggest that social drinking leads to increased social capital.