A Mixed-Methods Exploration of the Implementation of Policies That Earmarked Taxes for Behavioral Health.

Policy Points Earmarked tax policies for behavioral health are perceived as having positive impacts related to increasing flexible funding, suggesting benefits to expand this financing approach. Implementation challenges related to these earmarked taxes included tax base volatility that impedes long-term service delivery planning and inequities in the distribution of tax revenue. Recommendations for designing or revising earmarked tax policies include developing clear guidelines and support systems to manage the administrative aspects of earmarked tax programs, cocreating reporting and oversight structures with system and service delivery agents, and selecting revenue streams that are relatively stable across years. CONTEXT: Over 200 cities and counties in the United States have implemented policies earmarking tax revenue for behavioral health services. This mixed-methods study was conducted with the aim of characterizing perceptions of the impacts of these earmarked tax policies, strengths and weaknesses of tax policy designs, and factors that influence decision making about how tax revenue is allocated for services. METHODS: Study data came from surveys completed by 274 officials involved in behavioral health earmarked tax policy implementation and 37 interviews with officials in a sample of jurisdictions with these taxes-California (n = 16), Washington (n = 12), Colorado (n = 6), and Iowa (n = 3). Interviews primarily explored perceptions of the advantages and drawbacks of the earmarked tax, perceptions of tax policy design, and factors influencing decisions about revenue allocation. FINDINGS: A total of 83% of respondents strongly agreed that it was better to have the tax than not, 73.2% strongly agreed that the tax increased flexibility to address complex behavioral health needs, and 65.1% strongly agreed that the tax increased the number of people served by evidence-based practices. Only 43.3%, however, strongly agreed that it was easy to satisfy tax-reporting requirements. Interviews revealed that the taxes enabled funding for services and implementation supports, such as training in the delivery of evidence-based practices, and supplemented mainstream funding sources (e.g., Medicaid). However, some interviewees also reported challenges related to volatility of funding, inequities in the distribution of tax revenue, and, in some cases, administratively burdensome tax reporting. Decisions about tax revenue allocation were influenced by goals such as reducing behavioral health care inequities, being responsive to community needs, addressing constraints of mainstream funding sources, and, to a lesser degree, supporting services considered to be evidence based. CONCLUSIONS: Earmarked taxes are a promising financing strategy to improve access to, and quality of, behavioral health services by supplementing mainstream state and federal financing.

Increased taxes and regulation of Indian cigarillos (bidi) industry: Effects on revenue and years of life lost.

INTRODUCTION: Indian cigarillos (bidi) are low-cost alternatives to cigarettes with only 22% imposed taxes, and turnover of upto INR 4 million per annum exempted from taxation. This paper estimates revenue implications and potential loss of life years (YLLs) averted, if bidi industry is subjected to increased regulations and taxation. METHODS: Revenue estimated at 10% increased regulation and 100% regulation were calculated, followed by estimates at taxes equivalent to cigarettes and World Health Organization - Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) recommendation. Price elasticity was considered to assess demand. Price change in separate fractions (previously regulated and unregulated) were calculated to obtain potential YLLs averted. RESULTS: Current revenue of USD 59.25 million is projected to increase to USD 179.25 million with 695,159 averted YLLs at cigarette equivalent taxes and 10% increased regulation; USD 639.38 million with 4,527,597 averted YLLs with 100% regulation; USD 54.75 million, at WHO recommended taxes with 2,233,740 YLLs averted at 10% increased regulation, and 10,486,192 YLLs at 100% regulation. CONCLUSION: Proposed estimates are inline with WHO recommendations as they consider price elasticity and suggest substantial increase in revenue, while averting YLLs. A national action is needed to drive the policy decisions towards increased regulation and taxation and revision of India's tobacco control legislation. IMPLICATIONS: Our study presented empirical evidence of how the currently underutilized tool of taxation, as proposed in the WHO-FCTC, can be utilized to decrease bidi smoking prevalence and save measurable life years while generating government revenue simultaneously. While the revenue statistics counter the misleading tobacco industry narratives, the projected reduction in mortality will be seen as an irrefutable driving force for policy reforms, targeted at strategic increase in regulation and taxation of the traditional Indian cigarillos industry.

Exposure to cigarette taxes as a teenager and the persistence of smoking into adulthood.

Are teenage and adult smoking causally related? Recent anti-tobacco policy is predicated on the assumption that preventing teenagers from smoking will ensure that fewer adults smoke, but direct evidence in support of this assumption is scant. Using data from three nationally representative sources and instrumenting for teenage smoking with cigarette taxes experienced at ages 14-17, we document a strong positive relationship between teenage and adult smoking: deterring 10 teenagers from smoking through raising cigarette taxes roughly translates into 5 fewer adult smokers. We conclude that efforts to reduce teenage smoking can have long-lasting consequences on smoking participation and, presumably, health.

Consumption responses to sweetened beverage taxes by household income in four U.S. cities.

Taxes on sweetened beverages have become an important policy response to growing obesity rates and the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the U.S. and other nations. Since 2015, eight U.S. cities have implemented these taxes, but so far direct evidence of their impacts on household purchasing behavior is scarce. Of particular interest to many researchers and policy makers is the response of lower-income consumers to these taxes, both because they have higher sweetened beverage consumption on average and because of concerns that sweetened beverage taxes are regressive. This project investigates the income-stratified household response to SSB taxes using a data set containing the purchasing behavior of approximately 400 households in the cities of Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland, and Philadelphia, all of which have recently introduced beverage taxes. Using doubly-robust estimation of dynamic and heterogeneous treatment effects relative to a propensity-matched set of households in three comparison cities, we find that households in taxed cities experience increased prices and reduce their purchases of those beverages, with no evidence of cross-border shopping. We further find differential tax impacts by income level, with lower-income households (households with income <200% of the federal poverty line for their size) reducing their purchases of taxed beverages by nearly 50% - more than double the 18% reduction found in higher-income households (households with income >400% of the federal poverty line for their size). Our finding that lower-income households decrease their consumption more than twice as much as higher-income households suggests that these taxes may reduce health disparities and promote population health.

The price elasticity of heated tobacco and cigarette demand: Empirical evaluation across countries.

The market for heated tobacco products (HTPs) has grown rapidly in recent years, and many governments have started to include HTPs in tax codes to regulate their use. Currently, the evidence on how HTP prices impact tobacco use behaviors or whether consumers consider them as economic substitutes for cigarettes is lacking. This study is the first to answer these questions with a unique database to assess the own- and cross- price elasticities of HTP and cigarette demand. We collect a unique database of quarterly retail prices and sales of heated tobacco units and comparable scale cigarettes from 2014 to 2022, available for most countries where both HTPs and cigarettes are sold, and estimate the own- and cross- price elasticities of cigarette and HTP demand using a seemingly unrelated regression model. We find that HTP demand is price elastic (i.e., sensitive to prices) and has an own-price elasticity of -1.2 to -1.3, about four times greater than the own-price elasticity of cigarettes, which is about -0.3. We also find that cigarettes and HTPs are weak economic substitutes: while HTP demand is responsive to higher cigarette prices, cigarette demand is not sensitive to HTP prices. Our results suggest that tax policies that increase HTP and cigarette prices simultaneously will reduce HTP consumption without increasing cigarette consumption.

Associations between alcohol taxes and varied health outcomes among women of reproductive age and infants.

OBJECTIVE: No studies have examined whether alcohol taxes may be relevant for reducing harms related to pregnant people's drinking. METHOD: We examined how beverage-specific ad valorem, volume-based, and sales taxes are associated with outcomes across three data sets. Drinking outcomes came from women of reproductive age in the 1990-2020 US National Alcohol Surveys (N = 11 659 women $\le$ 44 years); treatment admissions data came from the 1992-2019 Treatment Episode Data Set: Admissions (N = 1331 state-years; 582 436 pregnant women admitted to treatment); and infant and maternal outcomes came from the 2005-19 Merative Marketscan® database (1 432 979 birthing person-infant dyads). Adjusted analyses for all data sets included year fixed effects, state-year unemployment and poverty, and accounted for clustering by state. RESULTS: Models yield no robust significant associations between taxes and drinking. Increased spirits ad valorem taxes were robustly associated with lower rates of treatment admissions [adjusted IRR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.91, 0.99]. Increased wine and spirits volume-based taxes were both robustly associated with lower odds of infant morbidities [wine aOR = 0.98, 95% CI: 0.96, 0.99; spirits aOR = 0.99, 95% CI: 0.98, 1.00] and lower odds of severe maternal morbidities [wine aOR = 0.91, 95% CI: 0.86, 0.97; spirits aOR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.92, 0.97]. Having an off-premise spirits sales tax was also robustly related to lower odds of severe maternal morbidities [aOR = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.64, 0.96]. CONCLUSIONS: Results show protective associations between increased wine and spirits volume-based and sales taxes with infant and maternal morbidities. Policies that index tax rates to inflation might yield more public health benefits, including for pregnant people and infants.

Do financial constraint and perceived stress modify the effects of food tax schemes on food purchases: moderation analyses in a virtual supermarket experiment.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether financial constraint and perceived stress modify the effects of food-related taxes on the healthiness of food purchases. DESIGN: Moderation analyses were conducted with data from a trial where participants were randomly exposed to: a control condition with regular food prices, an sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax condition with a two-tiered levy on the sugar content in SSB (5-8 g/100 ml: €0·21 per l and ≥8 g/100 ml: €0·28 per l) or a nutrient profiling tax condition where products with Nutri-Score D or E were taxed at a 20 percent level. Outcome measures were overall healthiness of food purchases (%), energy content (kcal) and SSB purchases (litres). Effect modification was analysed by adding interaction terms between conditions and self-reported financial constraint or perceived stress in regression models. Outcomes for each combination of condition and level of effect modifier were visualised. SETTING: Virtual supermarket. PARTICIPANTS: Dutch adults (n 386). RESULTS: Financial constraint or perceived stress did not significantly modify the effects of food-related taxes on the outcomes. Descriptive analyses suggest that in the control condition, the overall healthiness of food purchases was lowest, and SSB purchases were highest among those with moderate/high levels of financial constraint. Compared with the control condition, in a nutrient profiling tax condition, the overall healthiness of food purchases was higher and SSB purchases were lower, especially among those with moderate/high levels of financial constraint. Such patterns were not observed for perceived stress. CONCLUSION: Further studies with larger samples are recommended to assess whether food-related taxes differentially affect food purchases of subgroups.

Collaborative governance of an integrated system for collecting contributions for social health insurance, pension, and taxes from the informal sector: a synthesis of stakeholder perspectives.

BACKGROUND: Many low-and middle-income countries have adopted social health insurance schemes. However, the collection of contributions from the large informal sector of these economies poses a significant challenge. Employing an integrated system of contribution collection from all relevant institutions may be cost-effective. We used the integrative framework for collaborative governance, to explore and explain factors that may shape the governance of an integrated system for collecting contributions for social health insurance, pension, and taxes from the informal sector in Zambia. METHODS: We undertook a qualitative case study involving 25 key informants drawn from government ministries and institutions, cooperating partners, non-governmental organizations, and association representatives in the informal sector. Data were analyzed thematically using Emerson's integrative framework for collaborative governance. RESULTS: The main drivers of collaboration included a need for comprehensive policies and legislation to oversee the integrated system for contribution collection, prevent redundancy, reduce costs, and enhance organizational effectiveness. However, challenges such as leadership issues and coordination complexities were noted. Factors affecting principled engagement within the collaborative regime consisted of communication gaps, organizational structure disparities, and the adoption of appropriate strategies to engage the informal sector. Additionally, factors influencing shared motivation involved concerns about power dynamics, self-interests, trust issues, corruption, and a lack of common understanding of the informal sector. CONCLUSION: This study sheds light on a multitude of factors that may shape collaborative governance of an integrated system for contribution collection for social health insurance, pension, and taxes from the informal sector, providing valuable insights for policymakers and implementers alike. Expanding social health insurance coverage to the large but often excluded informal sector will require leveraging factors identified in this study to enhance collaboration with pension and tax subsystems.

Support for a hypothetical sugar-sweetened beverage tax in Taiwan.

Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) are drinks that contain added sugar or sweeteners and provide calories with no additional nutrients, and some countries have imposed additional taxes on the SSBs to reduce consumption, which is considered an SSB tax policy. This study used a cross-sectional online survey to examine the patterns of public support for an SSB tax in Taiwan. The sample included 1617 adults aged ≥ 20 years, who answered the survey questionnaire between May 2020 and April 2021. The respondents were recruited using convenience sampling, but sampling weights were applied to represent the Taiwanese population. Generalized ordered logit models with sampling weights were used to examine the correlates of public support for an SSB tax. Results showed that ~60% of the respondents supported the SSB tax and 47% perceived the tax to be effective. The respondents who were aware of the perceived health risks of SSBs or those who believed that one should be partly responsible for the health impact of SSBs were more likely to show support for the SSB tax. In adjusted regression models, both one's perceived risk and perceived responsibility of SSBs were positively associated with the perceived effectiveness of the SSB tax after sociodemographic characteristics were controlled. These research findings show evidence that there is public support for implementing an SSB tax to reduce SSB consumption in Taiwan.

The impact of cigarette cost on pack sales per capita consumption in the United States.

OBJECTIVES: Evidence suggests that cigarette costs significantly impact tobacco use, yet the effect of state-level cost variations on cigarette sales per capita in the US remains uncertain. This study investigates how state-level cigarette costs affect pack sales per capita consumption. STUDY DESIGN: This was an observational study of cigarette-pack sales per capita consumption in the United States. METHODS: We used the tobacco tax burden data (1989-2019) and a two-way fixed-effects model to analyse how cigarette costs affect consumption. Our predictor variables were average cost per pack, state tax per pack, and combined federal and state tax as a percentage of the retail price. Additionally, we compared the percentage change in state cigarette taxes per pack for each state in five-year intervals, adjusting for inflation. RESULTS: Regression analysis revealed that a 10% increase in the average cost per pack was related to a 9.59% decrease in per capita cigarette consumption (ß_average cost = -0.959, P < 0.001). Similarly, a rise in state tax per pack and a higher tax as a proportion of the retail price per pack were related to a decline in consumption (ß_ state tax = -0.176, P < 0.001), (ß_retail price = -0.323, P < 0.001). States that raised cigarette taxes beyond the rate of inflation had a higher reduction in cigarette per capita sales than those maintaining stable tax rates. CONCLUSIONS: Some states have not raised their cigarette taxes sufficiently to account for inflation. It appears that cigarette costs have significantly reduced cigarette consumption in the US.

How do environmental taxes affect the environmental investment of high-emission enterprises: Evidence from China.

Countries worldwide have adopted environmental taxes to reduce pollution, making it essential for policymakers and researchers to understand their impact on corporate environmental investment. This study investigates the impact of China's environmental tax law on the environmental investment behavior of high-emission enterprises, using a Difference-in-Differences (DID) approach based on a quasi-natural experiment. The findings reveal that environmental taxes significantly incentivize these enterprises to increase their environmental investments, with the proportion of investment relative to total assets rising by approximately 82% compared to low-emission firms. This effect remains robust after controlling for various tests, including parallel trends, placebo tests, and Propensity Score Matching (PSM) tests, as well as excluding firms that never disclosed pollutant discharge tax payments or expected effects. Motivation analysis shows that high-emission enterprises are driven primarily by the goal of reducing pollution costs to engage in environmental governance. Mechanism analysis indicates that the implementation of environmental taxes strengthens corporate governance, further encouraging environmental governance activities. Cross-sectional analysis reveals that these effects are most pronounced in firms with high financing constraints, elevated operating costs, or low profitability. Additionally, environmental investment is found to enhance corporate productivity, net sales margins, and social evaluations. This study enhances the understanding of how environmental regulation influences corporate behavior, offering empirical evidence that environmental taxes foster sustainable practices and enhance corporate performance.

How to get green with agricultural footprint: A global analysis of carbon emissions, environmental taxes, and agrochemical use.

The agriculture sector, being highly vulnerable to climate change, plays a pivotal role in achieving green and sustainable economies. As the 2030 Agenda emphasizes the integrated development of environmental, social, and economic dimensions, it is crucial to understand how agricultural practices affect sustainability. This study investigates the environmental impact of the agricultural sector on the green economy by examining key environmental factors, such as agricultural energy emissions, environmental taxes, irrigated water use efficiency, fertilizer use, and pesticide application. The analysis is conducted using the Panel Quantile Autoregressive Distributed Lag (QARDL) model, with robustness checks performed through the comparison with the Panel ARDL model, using data from 2000 to 2020. To assess the green economy, an index is constructed based on 20 indicators related to environmental, social, and economic sustainability. The results show that agricultural energy emissions, despite their environmental cost, are positively associated with green economy development, highlighting the trade-off between high productivity and environmental degradation in a resource-efficient economy. Improved water use efficiency is found to enhance agricultural sustainability and production. Additionally, environmental taxes and regulations exert a significant positive effect on both environmental preservation and social welfare. Contrary to the belief that reducing agricultural production will lower carbon emissions, the study suggests that adopting environmentally friendly practices and imposing targeted taxes are more effective strategies. The findings also reveal a negative relationship between excessive fertilizer use and the green economy, indicating the need for minimal fertilizer application to promote sustainability. The study concludes with specific policy recommendations. Governments, particularly in countries that have not yet adopted sustainable agricultural practices, should implement environmental taxes and regulations to promote carbon neutrality and support the Sustainable Development Goals. These measures are essential to balancing economic growth, environmental sustainability, and social equity in the agricultural sector.

The dark side of climate policy uncertainty: Hindering energy transition by shaping environmental taxes effectiveness.

Climate policy uncertainty (CPU) may have an adverse impact on the environment by interfering with the effectiveness of environmental policies, but there is currently little evidence to support this indirect effect. By incorporating CPU into the transition function, this paper utilizes the panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) to dynamically analyze how CPU affects the relationship between environmental taxes (ETR) and energy transition. When CPU exceeds the threshold, the promoting effect of ETR on energy transition weakens or reverses. The robustness of the main conclusions is demonstrated by establishing a PSTR estimator with the instrumental variable. This paper also constructs a counterfactual scenario, showing that CPU reduces the positive impact of ETR on renewable energy consumption and generation by 7.6% and 3.5%, respectively. Further analysis indicates that this negative effect arises because CPU likely increases investment risk, particularly for long-term green projects, thereby inhibiting the clean energy market and energy-related green technological innovation. Heterogeneity analysis find that the weakening effect of CPU on the effectiveness of ETR is stronger in countries with low energy resource endowment, high energy intensity, and lower economic development levels, underscoring the need for tailored policy approaches. This research emphasizes that for countries with ambitious energy transition goals, climate policy stability is crucial for ensuring the healthy development of environmental taxes policy and renewable energy markets.

Environmental taxes, energy transition and sustainable environmental technologies: A comparative OECD region climate change analysis.

The integrated economic reforms in recent years have transformed human life, however, the subsequent rise in environmental challenges necessitates sustainable development goals to ensure net-zero transformation. Within the context of modern energy, economic, and environmental transformation, we deliberate how environmental taxes, energy transition, and sustainable environmental innovation impact climate change in 38 OECD economies. Our robust empirical investigation allows us to report that environmental taxation, sustainable environmental technology, and energy transition lower but GDP and trade openness exacerbate ecological challenges. We also divide the dataset in G7 and the rest of the OECD groups to document the varying impact of environmental policies within OECD economies. Our econometric analysis helps us report novel policy frameworks to solve climate challenges under the UN SDG agenda.

Evolving waste management: The impact of environmental technology, taxes, and carbon emissions on incineration in EU countries.

Amid the urgent global imperatives concerning climate change and resource preservation, our research delves into the critical domains of waste management and environmental sustainability within the European Union (EU), collecting data from 1990 to 2022. The Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) results reveal a resounding commitment among EU member states to diminish their reliance on incineration, which is evident through adopting green technologies and environmentally conscious taxation policies, aligning with the European Union's sustainability objectives. However, this transition presents the intricate task of harmonizing industrial emissions management with efficient waste disposal. Tailoring waste management strategies to accommodate diverse consumption patterns and unique circumstances within individual member states becomes imperative. Cointegrating regressions highlighted the long-run relationship among the selected variables, while Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) and Panel-Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) estimates roughly confirmed MMQR results. ML analyses, conducted through two ensemble methods (Gradient Boosting, GB, and Extreme Gradient Boosting, XGBoost) shed light on the relative importance of the predictors: in particular, environmental taxation, consumption-based emissions, and production-based emissions greatly contribute to determining the variation of combustible renewables and waste. This study recommends that EU countries establish monitoring mechanisms to advance waste management and environmental sustainability through green technology adoption, enhance environmental taxation policies, and accelerate the renewable energy transition.

Modeled health economic and equity impact on dental caries and health outcomes from a 20% sugar sweetened beverages tax in Australia.

Dental caries is the most prevalent oral disease across the life course. This study modeled the population health and economic impact of a 20% sugar sweetened beverages tax (SSB) for preventing dental caries compared to no intervention (societal and healthcare perspective). A cost-effectiveness analysis according to quintiles of area-level socioeconomic disadvantage was performed for the 2020 Australian population (0-100 years old) using a closed cohort Markov model. A qualitative assessment of implementation considerations (e.g., acceptability, equity, sustainability) was undertaken. Health outcomes were modeled as decayed teeth prevented and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) averted. The 10-year and lifetime scenarios were modeled with probabilistic sensitivity analysis (Monte Carlo simulation, 2000 cycles). The 10-year scenario from a societal perspective yielded cost-savings of AUD$63.5M, healthcare cost-savings of AUD$42.2M, 510,977 decayed teeth averted and 98.1 DALYs averted. The lifetime scenario resulted in societal cost savings of AUD$176.6M, healthcare cost-savings of AUD$122.5M, 1,309,211 decayed teeth averted and 254.9 DALYs averted. Modeling indicated 71.5% and 74.5% cost-effectiveness for the 10-year and lifetime scenarios, respectively. A three-fold health benefit for the least advantaged was found compared to the most advantaged. A 20% SSB tax in Australia is cost-effective and promotes health equity.

How can corporate taxes contribute to sub-Saharan Africa's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? A case study of Vodafone.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic and the climate emergency threaten progress in reaching many of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets by 2030. The under-5 mortality and maternal mortality rates are well below the targets, and if we progress at the current pace, there is a high risk of not meeting the 2030 goals. Furthermore, the initial progress in the decline in child and maternal mortality since 1990 is likely to be eroded. Much of this progress has resulted from increased sanitation, drinking water, education, and health service coverage. The adequate provision of public services is possible if there is sufficient government funding. When governments have more income, they spend more on public services, which increases access to fundamental economic and social rights and, thus, contributes to the SDGs. One of the key drivers of government financing, taxation, constitutes 70% of government revenue in low- and lower-middle-income countries. Corporate income tax constitutes 18.8% of tax revenue in African countries compared to 10% of tax revenue in OECD countries. Therefore, it plays a critical role in SDG progress. This paper aims to quantify the contribution of one large taxpayer, that publishes their tax payments, (Vodafone Group Plc) on progress towards SDGs in six African countries. We use econometric modelling to estimate the impact of an increase in government revenue equivalent to Vodafone's average tax paid between 2007-2017. RESULTS: We find that government revenue equivalent to Vodafone's taxes made a significant contribution to progress in attaining selected SDGs. We found that the revenue equivalent to Vodafone's taxes allowed 966,188 people to access clean water and 1,371,972 people to access basic sanitation each year. Over the time period studied, 858,054 children spent an extra year in school and 54,275 children under five years and 3,655 mothers survived. In just one of these countries, Tanzania, the revenue equivalent to Vodafone's tax contribution allowed 174,121 people to access clean water and 223,586 to access sanitation each year. Over the time studied 187,023 children spent an additional year at school, 6,569 additional children under five and 625 additional mothers survived. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that the reported contributions from a single multinational corporation drive SDG progress. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of transparent taxes and explores the responsibilities of global institutions, governments, investors, and multinational corporations.

Changes in sugar-sweetened beverage purchases across the price distribution after the implementation of a tax in Mexico: a before-and-after analysis.

BACKGROUND: A tax of one-Mexican peso per liter of sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) came into effect in January 2014 in Mexico as a national health policy to tackle the high overweight and obesity prevalence. Previous studies have shown an overall reduction in SSB purchases after the tax implementation. However, it remains unknown whether and to what extent SSB consumers switched to cheaper taxed beverages, attenuating the potential effect of the policy. Our study's objective was to estimate changes in household purchases of taxed SSBs by tertiles of SSB prices (low, middle, and high) in urban areas after the SSB tax implementation in 2014. METHODS: Based on purchase data for 2012-2015 from households living in 54 Mexican cities with a population > 50,000 inhabitants, we calculated unit-value SSB prices for the full period and sorted them on a monthly basis to create monthly price tertiles. We merged these price tertiles to household purchases and created average monthly ml/capita/day SSB purchases by price tertile at the city level. We assessed SSB purchase switching patterns before and after the tax implementation through price-tertile stratified linear models. The main variable in the models was a dummy indicator that allowed us to identify the pre-tax period (2012-13) and post-tax period (2014-15). We controlled our models for time trends and contextual economic variables. RESULTS: In the regression adjusted models, we found a statistically significant purchase reduction ranging between 10.80 and 13.79 ml/capita/day (p-value < 0.001) across taxed beverages from the middle-price SSB after the tax implementation. We observed no statistically significant reductions in purchases of low-price SSBs and high-price SSBs. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show purchase reductions in the middle-price SSBs, which represents ≈30% of the overall SSB purchases in urban Mexico. Future studies should be conducted to test if the redesign of the current the tax, by either doubling the tax amount or taxing sugar content, might reduce more effectively purchases across all SSBs.

A framework for assessing the potential for a double dividend from a policy-induced reduction in alcohol consumption on the economy.

OBJECTIVES: Tax policies targeted at reducing alcohol consumption are typically understood to be associated with economic losses, including in alcohol production and trade sectors. This study sought to determine whether the overall effect of reduced alcohol consumption might be positive once improvements in productivity associated with reduced alcohol-related consumption are considered. STUDY DESIGN: This study used Computable General Equilibrium economic modelling. METHODS: An economic modelling framework was developed for Scotland, which considered the fiscal and economic impacts of alcohol taxation and the economy-wide impacts. Simulation of hypothetical alcohol taxes and improvements in labour productivity calibrated on losses due to absenteeism and presenteeism in Scotland in 2017. RESULTS: The long-run impacts of a five pence increase in taxation alone produce negative economic impacts on jobs and Gross Domestic Product in Scotland (1189 jobs and £71.12 million). These effects are reduced by half - but remain negative - when the revenues from such policy are recycled to the economy through government spending. A small improvement in labour productivity - equivalent to 4.95% of the total productivity gap from absenteeism and presenteeism estimated for Scotland - would be sufficient to turn the economic consequence non-negative. CONCLUSIONS: The overall macroeconomic impact of policies targeted at alcohol consumption should include consideration of the potential productivity effect and that impact studies that do not include such mechanisms are likely to overstate the negative economic impacts of alcohol policies.

The effects of environmental taxes, renewable energy consumption and environmental technology on the ecological footprint: Evidence from advanced panel data analysis.

The world faces various challenges in terms of environmental sustainability. An increasing world population, the rigidity of traditional production and consumption patterns, the complexity of economic activities, globalization, and harmful emissions intensify environmental pressures. In this context, the evaluation of various environmental policy instruments is important to alleviate environmental pressures and, thus, combat climate change. This study aims to investigate the impact of environmental taxes, renewable energy consumption, and environmental technology on the ecological footprint in OECD countries by using data from 1994 to 2018 and modern panel data techniques. The results of the AMG estimator indicate that environmental taxation and renewable energy consumption play a role in reducing the ecological footprint; however, results imply that environmental technology does not have a statistically significant effect on the ecological footprint. In addition, we applied DCCE and CS-ARDL estimators to obtain robustness results and observed that the findings remained valid. Therefore, the results of the study suggest that regulations to increase the effectiveness of environmental taxes, renewable energy consumption, and environmental technology should be promoted to ensure environmental sustainability.