In this episode, we talk to Dmitry Taubinsky from the University of California Berkeley about his paper “Regressive Sin Taxes, with an Application to the Optimal Soda Tax,” which he co-authored with Hunt Allcott and Benjamin B. Lockwood. This paper develops a theoretical model of an optimal “sin tax” i.e., a tax on goods that are considered harmful to consume. The theoretical framework is then applied to estimate the optimal soda tax.
Regressive Sin Taxes with an Application to the Optimal Soda Tax with Dmitry Taubinsky
Published
This was a fascinating listen! Dmitry Taubinsky’s insights into balancing the regressivity of soda taxes with their corrective benefits are particularly timely. I am curious, however, about how these fiscal models account for the availability of pharmaceutical or supplemental interventions that might mitigate consumption habits. Do you think the ‘optimal tax’ framework should be adjusted when such pharmacological alternatives become widely accessible, or would that complicate the behavioural model too much?