Differentiated Excise Taxation in the Beer Market

The use of excise taxation in contemporary Western societies is marked by the curious coexistence of the state's fiscal objective of raising revenue with often-articulated behavioral objectives relating to lowering or altering public consumption of certain commodities. This article uses findings from the first dedicated empirical study of the long-term development of various alcohol excise duties in England and Wales to explain how and why this contemporary situation, of distinct and potentially inconsistent rationalities, came to exist. Orthodox tax history tends to emphasize the importance of tax for state formation generally and/or the more specific establishment of a fiscal-military state in Britain. While important, such accounts relate principally to the fiscal dimensions of taxation and say little about any behavioral aspects. This article draws upon the original analysis of archival government sources dating from 1643 to 1914 that pertain to the excise taxation of various drinks that are today defined as alcoholic. It also involves the innovative application of the Foucauldian concept of governmentality to this history of taxation. The article demonstrates that the historical development of alcohol excise duties in England and Wales has been driven not just by the formation of a fiscal-military state, but also by the emergence of governmentality across the modern period. This original insight into tax history is used to explain the logical inconsistencies within current tax laws. Moreover, by providing the first sustained analysis of its links to taxation, the article advances the developing literature around governmentality within criminology, sociology, and sociolegal studies.

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Measuring Regressivity of Excise Taxes: A Buyers Index

Public Finance Quarterly ◽

10.1177/109114218801600303 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. 301-314 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

John B. Loomis ◽

Charles F. Revier

Keyword(s):

Wildlife Conservation ◽

Income Level ◽

Consumer Expenditure ◽

Income Class ◽

Expenditure Patterns ◽

Excise Tax ◽

Excise Taxes ◽

Excise Taxation ◽

Suits Index ◽

The Relationship

A variant of the Suits index is developed for measuring the progressivity of an excise tax distribution among buyers rather than the population (buyers and nonbuyers) as a whole. This new index is more useful for evaluating progressivity of selective excise taxes on products for which the proportion of each income class consisting of buyers varies with income level. In the process of developing the relationship between the buyers index and the Suits index, the links between consumer expenditure patterns and the values of both the Suits index and the buyers index are derived. The article concludes with a comparison of the new buyers index and the Suits index for five products studied for possible excise taxation under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act of 1980.

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