Another quiet revolution is taking place in the alcoholic beverage markets: a trend toward lower-alcohol and even no-alcohol beverages, especially in the world's higher-income countries. This new trend adds to the long-term consumer trend in affluent countries of substituting quality for...

This How to Note examines the complex interplay between excise taxes on alcohol and alcoholic beverages, their revenue yield, and the public health concerns related to alcohol consumption. The note suggests guidance on how countries can approach the design of excise taxes on alcohol based on...

This report has been prepared by the World Bank, at the request of the MoH, to support ongoing efforts to improve population health and revenue mobilization in the sector. The study estimates the health impacts of increasing taxation on SSBs, alcohol, and tobacco across gender and...

Alcohol taxation is an important policy instrument for correcting for market failures associated with excessive alcohol consumption. This paper examines the beverage-specific negative externalities by providing empirical evidence linking ten alcohol beverage types to drink driving and hazardous,...

We study U.S. state tax rules over the past 70 years to shed light on the determinants of U.S. state tax policy, generating three key results. First, we show that long-term tax trends are not consistent with Tiebout sorting and race-to-the-bottom competition models. Second, we document evidence...

Background: Alcohol use and its burden constitute one of the largest public health challenges in the WHO European Region. Raising alcohol taxes is a cost-effective “best buy” measure to reduce alcohol consumption, but its implementation remains uneven. This paper provides an overview of...

The link between health problems and the consumption of tobacco, alcohol, and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) has been widely studied. A large array of diseases is associated with tobacco, ranging from lung cancer and stroke to congenital malformations in children. Similarly, SSB consumption...

The alcohol industry argues that alcohol excise taxes do not reduce heavy drinking because of substitutions to lower-cost products and that these taxes disproportionately burden low-income drinkers. Alternatively, some economists have argued that increases in alcohol excise taxes reduce heavy...

The alcohol industry argues that alcohol excise taxes do not reduce heavy drinking because of substitutions to lower-cost products and that these taxes disproportionately burden low-income drinkers. Alternatively, some economists have argued that increases in alcohol excise taxes reduce heavy...

Excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages causes addiction, damages people’s health and has disrupting social and family consequences. Given that, many countries impose other taxes on these products in addition to sales tax. The ways to apply these taxes are different, however, they are...

Sin taxes have become a widely suggested policy instrument to discourage the consumption of goods deemed harmful to individuals and society. Using surveys and experiments on a representative sample of the US population, we provide evidence on how individuals think and reason about such...

Regression results from a 30-year panel of the state-level data indicate that changes in alcohol-excise taxes cause a reduction in drinking and lower all-cause mortality in the short run. But those results do not fully capture the long-term mortality effects of a permanent change in drinking...

The Index tracks over-bearing, paternalistic lifestyle regulation across the EU in four categories: alcohol, e-cigarettes, food/soft drinks and tobacco. Nanny state interventions in these areas are invariably promoted on grounds of health and yet it is difficult to see how clamping down on...

Excessive drinking creates costs to public services which the government can recoup through alcohol taxes, thereby making drinkers internalise the costs. However, in Britain, the alcohol duty regime is excessive and illogical. Not only do revenues from alcohol duty far exceed the costs to public...

In this paper, we present estimates of the effect of alcohol taxes on employment, hours of work per week, and wages. These are reduced form estimates derived from a structural model linking alcohol use to labor market outcomes. The reduced form estimates are meaningful in two ways: first, they...

Excess drinking is associated with lost productivity, accidents, disability, early death, crime, neglect of family responsibilities, and personality deterioration. These and related concerns have justified special restrictions on alcoholic-beverage commerce and consumption. The nature and extent...

The paper comparatively analyses the burden of alcohol excise duties for various levels of income earners in the Baltic countries. Understanding the specific allocation of excise duties across consumer groups is a prerequisite for the efficient design of alcohol policies and taxation strategies....

Drinkers subsidise non-drinkers by £6.5bn each yearThis study estimates the direct costs of alcohol use to the government in England, including the NHS, police, criminal justice system and welfare system. Taken together, they amount to a gross cost of £3.9 billion per annum (in 2015...

We find that sin good purchases are highly concentrated with 10% of households paying more than 80% of taxes on alcohol and cigarettes. Total sin tax burdens are poorly explained by demographics (including income), but are well explained by eight household clusters defined by purchasing...

We find that sin good purchases are highly concentrated with 10% of households paying more than 80% of taxes on alcohol and cigarettes. Total sin tax burdens are poorly explained by demographics (including income), but are well explained by eight household clusters defined by purchasing...

This paper estimates the external costs of harmful alcohol use in the European Union (EU) and confronts them with the alcohol excise duty collections per adult and per litre of pure alcohol in the various Member States. In all but one Member State, drinkers do not appear to pay their way. This...

Several public health interest groups in the United States have recently called for equalization of the federal tax on a unit of alcohol in beer, in wine and in spirits. This paper provides some new empirical evidence of what effect alcohol tax differentials have on total alcohol consumption....

We collect detailed data on U.S. state personal income, corporate, sales, cigarette, gasoline, and alcohol taxes over the past 70 years to shed light on the determinants of state tax policies. We provide a comprehensive summary of how tax policy has changed over time, within and across states....

Products with negative externalities are often subject to regulations that limit competition. The single-product case may suggest that it is irrelevant for aggregate welfare whether output is restricted via corrective taxes or limiting competition. However, when products are differentiated...

Countries everywhere are considering the increasing evidence on the possible health benefits from reducing the consumption of sugary drinks – often called sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB). This paper examines the rationale for taxing sugary drinks as a way to reduce sugar consumption and...

We show that tax-induced increases in alcohol prices can lead to substantial substitution and avoidance behavior that limits reductions in alcohol consumption. Causal estimates are derived from a natural experiment in Illinois where spirits and wine taxes were raised sharply and unexpectedly in...

We show that tax-induced increases in alcohol prices can lead to substantial substitution and avoidance behavior that limits reductions in alcohol consumption. Causal estimates are derived from a natural experiment in Illinois where spirits and wine taxes were raised sharply and unexpectedly in...

We show that tax-induced increases in alcohol prices can lead to substantial substitution and avoidance behavior that limits reductions in alcohol consumption. Causal estimates are derived from a natural experiment in Illinois where spirits and wine taxes were raised sharply and unexpectedly in...

This paper compares two methods for meta-analysis: fixed-effect models and random-effects models. Both models are applied to pass-through rates of excise taxes on alcohol beverages. Using a sample of estimates from 30 primary studies, weighted means are first reported for each method and...

"Sin taxes" are high on the political agenda in the global fight against obesity. According to theory, they are welfare improving if consumers with low self-control are at least as price responsive as consumers with high self-control, even in the absence of externalities. In this paper, we...

We show that tax-induced increases in alcohol prices can lead to substantial substitution and avoidance behavior that limits reductions in alcohol consumption. Causal estimates are derived from a natural experiment in Illinois where spirits and wine taxes were raised sharply and unexpectedly in...

"Sin taxes" are high on the political agenda in the global fight against obesity. According to theory, they are welfare improving if consumers with low self-control are at least as price responsive as consumers with high self-control, even in the absence of externalities. In this paper, we...

We show that tax-induced increases in alcohol prices can lead to substantial substitution and avoidance behavior that limits reductions in alcohol consumption. Causal estimates are derived from a natural experiment in Illinois where spirits and wine taxes were raised sharply and unexpectedly in...