Alcohol and public policy: The economics of sin.

摘要

The premise from which the present inquiry stems is that there is significant room for improvement in current public policy regarding alcohol. The fundamental question to be addressed concerns whether we can develop a regime that protects the benefits of consuming alcohol while alleviating the associated external costs. With this in mind, the objective of this work is to make an informative and insightful contribution to policy analysis in the area of alcohol control.;The analysis contained herein focuses primarily on a positive analysis of the economic effects of taxation and regulation of the consumption of alcoholic beverages at both the federal and state levels in the United States with the objective of determining the ability of such policies to achieve their intended goals. Beginning with an examination of the United States, which is delivered in Chapter 2 along with a discussion of some rudimentary principles of taxation.;Empirical analyses of the taxation and control of alcoholic beverages are delivered in Chapters 3 and 4. Specifically, the importance of inter-beverage substitution in determining the revenue generating capabilities of a tax is considered in Chapter 3 along with the implications of such substitution for correcting any external costs associated with alcohol consumption. A procedure for estimating the magnitude of the border-crossing phenomenon related to interstate differences in excise tax rates on alcohol is considered in Chapter 4 and is extended to consider the effects of such phenomena on not only revenue generation but also on "corrective" taxation measures aimed at deterrence of alcohol abuse. Chapter 5 contains a summary of these diverse findings and their relevance for policy formation, as well as notes on future extensions to the analysis.