Alcohol Price Regulation in France: Choosing a Reform Scenario to Achieve Public Health and Tax Fairness Objectives

Journal article: Public health authorities advocate the introduction of alcohol pricing policies in the form of tax reform and/or a minimum unit price based on the pure alcohol content of products. We use Kantar WorldPanel household purchase data to describe the distortions in the current tax system, favouring wine and penalising low-income households. We assess the potential impact of reform sce­narios that replace current taxes with a single excise tax (flat or progressive) on pure alcohol content and/or the introduction of a minimum price per gram of pure alcohol. Introducing a minimum price while leaving taxation unchanged would have the advantage of raising alcohol prices, especially for low-end wines, which are prized by abusive consumers. The impact would a priori be limited in terms of tax regressivity and for higher quality segments, which is important for the wine sector.

Author(s)

Sébastien Lecocq, Valérie Orozco, Christine Boizot, Céline Bonnet, Fabrice Etilé

Journal
  • Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics
Date of publication
  • 2023
Keywords JEL
D12 D62 H21 H23 I18
Keywords
  • Alcohol
  • Health
  • Price
  • Taxation
Pages
  • 17-32
Version
  • 1