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Tobacco taxes have positive impacts on health outcomes. However, policy makers often hesitate to use them because of the perception that poorer households are affected disproportionally more than richer households. This study compares the simulated distributional effects of tobacco tax increases in eight low- and middle-income countries. It applies a standardized extended cost-benefit analysis methodology and relies on comparable data sources across countries. The net effect of raising taxes on cigarettes encompasses the direct negative price shock to household budgets and the long-term benefits of improved health outcomes. The distributional incidence is assessed by estimating decile-specific behavioral responses and relative income gains. The comparative results do not support the claim that tobacco taxes are necessarily regressive. Although welfare losses from the first-order price shock disproportionally affect the poor, these negative shocks are attenuated by greater price-responsiveness among lower-income groups and further offset by higher long-term relative gains through reduced medical expenditures and additional years of productive life as taxes dissuade smoking. In several countries, increasing the price of cigarettes is pro-poor and welfare improving for a large share of the population. Along with raising taxes, policy should aim at encouraging responsiveness to price changes and target tobacco-related medical expenses that disproportionally burden the poor.

Cigarette Tax --- Distributional Impact --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Income Distribution --- Inequality --- Poverty --- Poverty Reduction --- Sin Tax --- Taxation --- Tobacco Control

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Tobacco-use-related diseases are the main cause of mortality in Moldova, where tobacco consumption is widely spread, especially among men. In addition to health concerns, tobacco consumption has economic consequences, as households spend substantial resources on tobacco and related out-of-pocket medical costs. Tobacco tax increases are one of the most effective measures to reduce tobacco consumption, but are usually believed to be regressive, taxing the poor proportionally more than the rich. This paper estimates the tobacco price elasticity of demand for Moldova by income decile and undertakes an extended cost-benefit analysis to estimate the distributional effect of a rise in tobacco taxes on income distribution. The paper's main findings are that a tobacco price increase would generate a rise in expenditure deriving from direct tobacco price increases, but would reduce the costs of out-of-pocket medical expenses. Based on these two factors, the net effect of a tobacco tax increase would be progressive in the analyzed cases, ultimately benefitting the incomes of the lower-income groups in the population.

Disease Control & Prevention --- Health Economics & Finance --- Health Impact --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Income Distribution --- Industry --- Mortality --- Price Elasticity --- Public Health Promotion --- Regressive Tax --- Science and Technology Development --- Sin Tax --- Taxation --- Technology Industry --- Technology Innovation --- Tobacco --- Tobacco Tax --- Tobacco Use and Control

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Excise taxes on alcohol and tobacco have long been a dependable and significant revenue source in many countries. More recently, considerable attention has been paid to the way in which such taxes may also be used to attain public health objectives by reducing the consumption of products with adverse health and social impacts. Some have gone further and argued that explicitly earmarking excise taxes on alcohol and tobacco to finance public health expenditures-marrying sin and virtue as it were-will make increasing such taxes more politically acceptable and provide the funding needed to increase such expenditures, especially for the poor. The basic idea-tax "bads" and do "good" with the proceeds-is simple and appealing. But designing and implementing good "sin" taxes is a surprisingly complex task. Earmarking revenues from such taxes for health expenditures may also sound good and be a useful selling point for new taxes. However, such earmarking raises difficult issues with respect to budgetary rigidity and political accountability. This note explores these and other issues that lurk beneath the surface of the attractive concept of using increased sin excises on alcohol and tobacco to finance "virtuous" social spending on public health.

Accounting --- Added tax --- Addiction --- Aged --- Alcohol consumption --- Alcohol taxation --- Alcohol taxes --- Alcoholism --- Alternative minimum tax --- Children --- Crime --- Debt markets --- Differential taxation --- Earmarked tax --- Economic analysis --- Economic development --- Economic efficiency --- Economic theory & research --- Effective tax rates --- Equity --- Evasion --- Exchange --- Excise tax --- Exercises --- Expenditure --- Externalities --- Families --- Finance --- Finance and financial sector development --- Gambling --- Good --- Goods --- Governments --- Health --- Health care --- Health effects --- Health monitoring & evaluation --- Health outcomes --- Health policy --- Health promotion --- Health spending --- Health, nutrition and population --- Implementation --- Indirect taxation --- Inflation --- International bank --- Intervention --- Isolation --- Knowledge --- Labor --- Laws --- Levy --- Local finance --- Local governments --- Macroeconomic conditions --- Macroeconomics and economic growth --- Management --- Market --- Marketing --- Nutrition --- Passive smoking --- People --- Per --- Product taxes --- Psychology --- Public --- Public economics --- Public expenditures --- Public funds --- Public health --- Public revenues --- Regressive taxes --- Regulation --- Revenue --- Revenue sources --- Risks --- Sales taxes --- Services --- Sin tax --- Sin' tax --- Sin' taxes --- Smokers --- Smoking --- Social policy --- Social research --- Social welfare --- Spending --- Stress --- Tax --- Tax administration --- Tax base --- Tax burdens --- Tax changes --- Tax competition --- Tax evasion --- Tax incidence --- Tax increases --- Tax law --- Tax policy --- Tax rate --- Tax receipts --- Tax reduction --- Tax reform --- Tax revenue --- Tax structures --- Tax system --- Taxation --- Taxation & subsidies --- Taxes --- Tobacco tax --- Transparency --- Uniform taxes --- Use taxes --- Value added tax --- Weight

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The general assumption that social policy should be utilitarian--that society should be organized to yield the greatest level of welfare--leads inexorably to increased government interventions. Historically, however, the science of economics has advocated limits to these interventions for utilitarian reasons and because of the assumption that people know what is best for themselves. But more recently, behavioral economics has focused on biases and inconsistencies in individual behavior. Based on these developments, governments now prescribe the foods we eat, the apartments we rent, and the composition of our financial portfolios. The Tyranny of Utility takes on this rise of paternalism and its dangers for individual freedoms, and examines how developments in economics and the social sciences are leading to greater government intrusion in our private lives. Gilles Saint-Paul posits that the utilitarian foundations of individual freedom promoted by traditional economics are fundamentally flawed. When combined with developments in social science that view the individual as incapable of making rational and responsible choices, utilitarianism seems to logically call for greater governmental intervention in our lives. Arguing that this cannot be defended on purely instrumental grounds, Saint-Paul calls for individual liberty to be restored as a central value in our society. Exploring how behavioral economics is contributing to the excessive rise of paternalistic interventions, The Tyranny of Utility presents a controversial challenge to the prevailing currents in economic and political discourse.

Welfare economics. --- Utilitarianism. --- Paternalism. --- Public welfare. --- Benevolent institutions --- Poor relief --- Public assistance --- Public charities --- Public relief --- Public welfare --- Public welfare reform --- Relief (Aid) --- Social welfare --- Welfare (Public assistance) --- Welfare reform --- Parentalism --- Government policy --- Human services --- Social service --- Social classes --- Social control --- Social systems --- Economic policy --- Economics --- Social policy --- Ethics --- Hedonism --- Philosophy --- Welfare economics --- Utilitarianism --- Paternalism --- E-books --- 201 --- 305.6 --- 321.2 --- AA / International- internationaal --- Sociologie: algemeenheden --- Risicotheorie, speltheorie. Risicokapitaal. Beslissingsmodellen --- Economisch beleid van de overheid --- Coasian view. --- Freudianism. --- Friedrich Nietzsche. --- Lockean theory. --- Man. --- Pareto improvements. --- Pigovian taxation. --- Postmodernism. --- addictive goods. --- autonomy. --- behavioral biases. --- behavioral economics. --- behavioral issues. --- behavioral problems. --- cognitive capacity. --- competitive markets. --- consistent behavior. --- consistent self. --- divine order. --- economic theory. --- economics. --- externality. --- financial capacity. --- free markets. --- global efficiency. --- government control. --- government intervention. --- government intrusion. --- government involvement. --- happiness. --- incarnations. --- incentives. --- individual freedom. --- individual liberty. --- individual rights. --- individual welfare. --- individual well-being. --- individualistic values. --- intellectual apparatus. --- intellectual safeguard. --- laissez-faire. --- legitimacy of power. --- libertarian paternalism. --- limited government. --- limited liability. --- market interactions. --- markets. --- modern paternalism. --- objective reality. --- paternalism. --- paternalistic governments. --- paternalistic intervention. --- paternalistic interventions. --- paternalistic policies. --- paternalistic state. --- penalties. --- policy prescriptions. --- political economy critique. --- political institutions. --- population distribution. --- post-utilitarian paradigm. --- post-utilitarianism. --- price restrictions. --- psychological phenomena. --- public policy. --- rational phenomena. --- responsibility transfer. --- revealed preferences. --- self-consciousness. --- self-reported happiness. --- sin tax. --- social contract. --- social engineer. --- social planner. --- social preferences. --- social sciences. --- state involvement. --- statistics. --- transactions. --- unique self. --- unitary individual. --- utilitarian social policy. --- utilitarian state. --- utilitarianism. --- utility. --- voluntary transactions. --- welfare.