BACKGROUND Tobacco consumption rates in Lebanon are among the highest worldwide. The country ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2005. A law was passed in 2011 which regulates smoking in closed public spaces, bans advertising, and stipulates larger warnings. Despite international evidence confirming that increasing taxation on tobacco products lowers tobacco consumption, no ...

Common government policy towards curbing unhealthy alcohol drinking behavior is to raise taxes thereby lowering consumption. This study examines how alcohol excise taxes (beer, spirits and wine) affect the number of individuals being treated for alcoholism in state facilities as well as effects on consumption on the state and regional levels in the United States. State-level data for the 50 sta...

This paper extends the previous literature on optimal redistributive taxation in the presence of externalities to a multi-externality setting. While taxes on income and on 'clean' commodities are still una ected by the externalities, which con rms previous results, I nd that the existence of more than one externality-generating commodity has important implications for the optimal Pigouvian tax ...

Several previous studies have demonstrated the importance of relative consumption comparisons for public policy. Yet, almost all of them have ignored the role of leisure for status comparisons. Inspired by Veblen (1899), this paper assumes that people care about their relative consumption and that leisure has a displaying role in making relative consumption more visible, based on a two-type mod...

The theorem of zero taxation of capital income is reexamined and is shown to hinge critically on the assumptions of a long horizon and perfect markets for the inter-temporal allocation of resources. The theorem does not hold when borrowing constraints prevent individuals from insuring against idiosyncratic shocks and have a precautionary motive for savings. Structural assumptions are made such ...

This paper revisits the Atkinson–Stiglitz result on uselessness of commodity taxation in the presence of optimal non-linear income taxation in a more general setup, namely when tastes are heterogeneous. This general analysis displays the key economic assumptions under which the Atkinson–Stiglitz result is robust. A small tax on a given commodity is desirable if high income earners have a relati...

Obesity is a global problem. Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) are a leading contributor of added sugars in individual diets and thus to obesity. Governments have considered taxing SSBs to prevent obesity and generate revenue, but no 'one-size-fits-all' taxation approach exists. We describes three key considerations for governments interested in exploring beverage taxation: (i) what type of tax t...

Viewing local finances under the approach to private-public consumption complementarity, we conclude that foot voting and tax competition become extinct when the (capital) tax structure across jurisdictions is the one forging close ties between the burgher and his/her jurisdiction. Feeling the burgher attached to the local public goods offered and to the local business activity, prevents labor ...