Taxation and regulation of smoking, drinking and gambling in the European Union

Smoking is the single largest cause of avoidable death in the European Union accounting for over half a million deaths each year. One in ten of all 11-year olds have been drunk twice or more times, possibly causing lasting physical and mental harm. Electronic gaming machines are the crack cocaine of gambling. Consumer sovereignty, on the other hand, indicates that people should be allowed to smoke as long as they do not harm others. There is sound medical evidence, furthermore, that a drink each day keeps the doctor away, while recreational gambling can be an enjoyable form of entertainment for many people. These and other salient facts about the harmful and positive effects of smoking, drinking and gambling provide the background for a dispassionate economic analysis of the taxation and regulation of these activities. The main message the studies convey is that it would be unrealistic to rely solely on duty levels and differentiation to curb abusive use. Duty levels do have a clear impact in restraining consumption by children and young adults - an important priority for policy. But complementary policies - including direct regulation and provision of information - also have a meaningful role to play in each of the markets for tobacco, alcohol and gambling.

Parallel tracks towards a global treaty on carbon pricing

We argue that a global carbon price is the only way to effectively tackle free riding in international climate policy, required to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We briefly review the main reasons behind the essential role of carbon pricing, address common misunderstandings and scepticism, and identify key complementary policy instruments. Negotiating global carbon pricing is argued to be much easier than negotiating binding country-level targets, especially if it includes equitable revenue recycling. Moreover, a global carbon price can be more readily adapted to new data and insights of climate science. We propose a political strategy towards a global carbon price that consists of two tracks. The first entails assembly of a carbon-pricing club, a specific case of a climate club, to gradually move towards a full participatory agreement on carbon pricing. The second track involves putting time and energy into re-focusing UNFCCC negotiations on a carbon-pricing agreement. The two tracks reinforce one another, increasing the likelihood of a successful outcome

Obstacles to Increasing Tax Revenues in Low Income Countries

tax, tax administration, revenue, politicsThis paper is focused on the question: why do the governments of low income countries not raise more tax revenues? Two different but complementary approaches are used to answer it. The first approach is comparisons: among countries today, and within countries over time. This approach tends to generate relatively conservative answers to the central question. It leads to an emphasis on the ‘sticky’ nature of the taxation. For any individual country in ‘normal times’ – i.e. excluding situations of war, major internal conflict, the collapse or rapid reconstruction of state power - revenue collections, measured as a proportion of GDP, do not change much from year to year. This is partly because effective taxation systems require a great deal of coordination and cooperation between revenue agencies and other organisations, both inside and outside the public sector. It is hard quickly to improve the effectiveness of a complex organisational network. The ‘stickiness’ of tax collections also reflects the fact that the overall tax take – i.e. the proportion of GDP raised as public revenue – is to a significant degree determined by the structure of national economies. For logistical reasons, it is much easier to raise revenue from economies (a) that are high income, urban and non-agricultural and (b) where the ratio of international trade to GDP is high. The government of the average low income country raises less than 20 per cent of GDP in revenue. It makes no sense for such governments to aim to match OECD tax takes of 30-45 per cent of GDP.DfID, NORAD, UNRISD, SD

Administration of EU (+ FTA) and other Fleets Involved in Aquaculture of Salmonids

t is widely acknowledged that there exists a dearth of information with regard to fleet involved in aquaculture of salmonids. To address this insufficiency, and to understand the gaps and grey areas, Transport Canada funded a project in 2017 that aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of how the Norwegian, Irish, Chile and Australian fleet involved in aquaculture of salmonids are registered and administered. The World Maritime University undertook the project, and contracted external consultants to develop and deliver reports from a number of the aforementioned jurisdictions. The project report provides a deep insight into the regulatory framework for the registration of vessels involved in Aquaculture of salmonids. In addition, the areas of operation of these vessels, the safe manning procedures and the framework for the protection of the marine environment from vessels involved in aquaculture of salmonids has been thoroughly examined within the ambit of the report. The sample of the study is based upon both primary sources and secondary sources of law, as well as explanations and rational interpretations provided by respondents interviewed. The scope of “vessels” included all vessels that support the aquaculture salmonids industry, including fish delousing, feed barges/ships, well vessels, live fish carriers, pen repair and monitoring vessels, ROV support vessels

Instruments mixes to reduce GHG emission from road passenger transport and stimulate greening in Ethiopia

This thesis explores climate mitigation instruments that would decarbonise, stimulate greening and foster leapfrogging in the Ethiopian road transport sector in general and cars in particular yet without compromising the many promises of enhanced mobility. To do so, a socio-legal approach and a broader designing approach involving ‘principles’ and frameworks that are common in climate and transport regulations - integration, leapfrogging, and complementary mixes - are used. Transport has a significant potential for long-term carbon mitigation plans, and more importantly, in developing countries that are not in an infrastructure/carbon lock-in situation. For this, Ethiopia is taken as a case study jurisdiction. Review of existing strategies revealed that Ethiopian mitigation strategies are ineffective to decarbonise the sector, and instead, other government policies and decisions have fuelled motorisation and hence carbon emissions. Equally, the comparative analysis presented in the thesis revealed that there is no single instrument that fits all countries’ situations. Thus, after a robust analysis of the socio-economic, political and environmental contexts of Ethiopia, the thesis presents additional instruments that would stimulate both the incremental and transformative changes required to decarbonise road transport. In the car regulation system, it is argued that a comprehensive and tailored mix of transport strategies and instruments that address both the demand and supply side of car market are needed. Hence, the potentials of fuel efficiency and carbon emissions standards, taxes, fiscal incentives, car use restrictions and other complementary instruments are discussed. Apart from the conventional mitigation strategies, the thesis argues that decarbonisation requires fixing regulatory loopholes and creating an integrated system in the importation/production, operation and final disposal of cars. It is also argued that instruments that stimulate non-motorised and mass transport, electric vehicles and integration of the modes are needed to open up the opportunity for a transport leapfrogging

The Economics of Tobacco and Tobacco Control

This monograph, a joint effort of the U.S. National Cancer Institute and World Health Organization, examines economic issues in tobacco and tobacco control, including the supply and demand of tobacco products. This first chapter frames the issues addressed in the monograph and describes its organization around key topic areas. Each monograph chapter focuses on the global evidence on these issues, particularly the evidence from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The closing sections of this chapter present chapter conclusions and major overall conclusions generated by the work presented here. Experts in economics, tobacco control, public policy, public health, and other related fields from every region in the world, including high-income countries and LMICs, were assembled to provide the research and analyses presented within these pages. It is hoped that this monograph will help inform the implementation of global tobacco control efforts in the 21st century.Additional co-authors: Dongbo Fu, C.K. Gajalakshmi, Vendhan Gajalakshmi, Mark Goodchild, Emmanuel Guindon, Prakash Gupta, Reviva Hasson, Luminita S Hayes, Sara Hitchman, Kinh Hoang-Van, Jidong Huang, Andrew Hyland, Nathan Jones, John Keyser, Pierre Kopp, Harry Lando, David Levy, James Lightwood, Christine Logel, Benn McGrady, Yumiko Mochizuki-Kobayashi, Mario Monsour, Nigar Nargis, Richard J. O’Connor, Maizurah Omar, Zeynep Önder, William Onzivu, Anne-Marie Perucic, Armando Peruga, Vinayak M. Prasad, Martin Raw, Cecily S. Ray, Lyn Reed, Bung-on Ritthiphakdee, Hana Ross, Jennifer Ruger, Henry Saffer, Genevieve Sansone, Natalie Sansone, Fatwa Sari Tetra Dewi, Kerstin Schotte, Omar Shafey, Yoon-Jeong Shin, Giorgio Sincovich, John Tauras, Mark Travers, Édouard Tursan d’Espaignet, Marco Vargas, Mandeep K. Virk-Baker, Corné van Walbeek, Charles W. Warren, Marzenna Anna Weresa, Xin Xu, Eduard Zaloshnja, Lei Zhang, Ping Zhan