International Journal of Health Policy and Management

International Journal of Health Policy and Management

Investigating Indicators to Assess and Support Alcohol Taxation Policy: Results From the International Alcohol Control (IAC) Study

Document Type : Short Communication

Authors
Sally Casswell 1
Karl Parker 1
Steve Randerson 1
Taisia Huckle 1
Lathika Athauda 2
Aravind Banavaram 3
Sarah Callinan 4
Orfhlaith Campbell 5
Surasak Chaiyasong 6
Song Dearak 7
Laura Romero-Garcia 8
Gopalkrishna Gururaj 9
Romtawan Kalapat 6
Khem Karki 10
Thomas Karlsson 11
Mom Kong 7
Shiwei Liu 12
Norman Maldonado 8
Juan Felipe González-Mejía 8
Tim Naimi 13
Keitseope Nthomang 14
Opeyemi Oladunni 15
Kwame Owino 16
Juan Herrera-Palacio 8
Phasith Phatchana 6
Pranil Pradhan 10
Ingeborg Rossow 17
Gillian Shorter 5
Vanlounny Sibounheuang 18
Mindaugas Štelemėkas 19
Dao The Son 20
Kate Vallance 13
Wim van Dalen 21
Ashley Wettlaufer 22
Arianne Zamora 23
1 SHORE & Whariki Research Centre, College of Health, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
2 Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Ragama, Sri Lanka
3 Department of Epidemiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore, India
4 Centre for Alcohol Policy Research (CAPR), School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
5 Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK
6 Faculty of Pharmacy, Mahasarakham University (MSU), Kham Riang, Thailand
7 Cambodia Movement for Health, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
8 PROESA, Universidad Icesi, Cali, Colombia
9 National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Kamataka, India
10 Department of Community Medicine and Public Health, Institute of Medicine, Kathmandu, Nepal
11 Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland
12 Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
13 Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
14 Department of Social Work, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana
15 Department of Public Health, Adeleke University, Ede, Nigeria
16 Institute of Economic Affairs, Nairobi, Kenya
17 Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
18 Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Health Sciences, Vientiane, Lao People's Democratic Republic
19 Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania
20 Thuongmai University, Hanoi, Vietnam
21 Dutch Institute for Alcohol Policy STAP, Utrecht, The Netherlands
22 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
23 EpiMetrics.Inc, Manila, Philippines
10.34172/ijhpm.8551
Abstract
Alcohol taxation is a key policy to reduce consumption and alcohol harm but evidence on tax design and indicators to assess taxation policy are lacking. Tax design and two indicators: tax as a share of lowest retail price and affordability, were investigated in eight high-income and nine middle-income jurisdictions. Collaborators populated the International Alcohol Control (IAC) study online Alcohol Policy Tool, providing measures of tax design, tax rates; and typical lowest prices available for retail take-away alcohol. These data were used to calculate tax/share of retail price. Affordability of alcohol was assessed against gross national income (GNI) per capita. High-income jurisdictions had higher tax/share and higher affordability on average compared with middle-income jurisdictions. Over the sample as a whole there was no association between these two indicators of tax policy. The tax designs used also varied with high-income jurisdictions more likely to use specific excise tax reflecting potency and middle-income jurisdictions more likely to utilise ad valorem and specific volume based taxes and to use more than one method across a beverage. Increased alcohol taxation to reduce alcohol consumption and harm is established as a high impact policy and is believed to work by affecting affordability. However, less is known about the best taxation methods to reduce affordability or the best measures to monitor and compare alcohol taxation between countries and over time. In this sample of high- and middle-income jurisdictions tax/price share was not found to predict affordability, suggesting the need to further research indicators of alcohol affordability.

Highlights

Sally Casswell (Google Scholar) (PubMed)

Keywords
Alcohol Pricing Policy
Taxation Methods
Tax/Price Share
Affordability
IAC Study
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International Journal of Health Policy and Management
Volume 14, Issue 1
2025
Pages 1-8

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Supplementary File
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Casswell-Supple-File-1-IJHPM.pdf

  • Received Date 08 May 2024
  • Revised Date 08 November 2024
  • Accepted Date 26 February 2025
  • First Published Date 01 March 2025
  • Published Date 01 December 2025