Debate Primer: Sin Taxes
This week, Political Union will take up the question of whether sin taxes are an unjust policy to implement. As in the past few weeks, we’ll compile a few places to look for definitions, perspectives, and analysis of sin tax policy.
First, what are sin taxes?
Investopedia’s definition, and things to understand [2 mins]
In video form, from NowThisNews [2 mins]
Perspectives on sin taxes
A senior scholar at the Mercatus center contends there are several myths about sin taxes that require debunking [8 mins]
A professor of business at Wharton argues for a form of “revenue recycling,” wherein revenues from sin taxes are used as funding for low-income social projects [26 mins listening; 14 mins reading]
A quick take from the Economist about the effects of sin taxes on reducing consumption of different consumer goods [4 mins]
A piece from the Atlantic in 2016 as Britain began to implement sin taxes on sugar [9 mins]
Three economics professors on the standard justifications for sin taxes, and the potential misinvestment of revenues [6 mins]
A working paper from Pew on the effects of sin taxes on state and local government budgets [12 mins]
Scholarly work on sin taxes
A study from 2009 examining the effects of excise taxes on alcohol on automobile crashes in Illinois [2 min abstract]
On the pursuit of an optimal level of sin taxation for various consumer goods, given general lack of self-control among consumer populations [7 min abstract/introduction]
On the peripheral effects of sin taxes on non-head of household individuals, whose head of household figure is addicted/dependent on alcohol or tobacco [1 min abstract]
