ReviewBMJ global health2023
Taxation of tobacco, alcohol, and sugar-sweetened beverages: reviewing the evidence and dispelling the myths.
Review in BMJ global health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Population attributable fractions of a wide range of peripheral diseases for the burden of dementia.Nature human behaviour · 2026Pooled it
- Review
- Who pays and Who benefits? A distributional health-economic evaluation of strengthening the UK soft drinks industry levy.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2026Article
- Why Adolescents Choose to Stop or Never Start Vaping: Evidence From South Africa.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2026Article
- A global commitment to addressing chronic liver disease.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2026Article
- Applying the 5P framework to improve cancer prevention in European health systems.Journal of public health policy · 2026Article
- Commentary on Morris et al.: Shifting consumption from unhealthy to healthy commodities.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- Securing Somalia's health: leveraging sin tax revenues to drive universal health coverage and financial protection for lifesaving care in Somalia's health system-scoping review.Health economics review · 2026Review
- Harnessing the World Health Organization's '3 by 35' Initiative to Finance Oral Health Care in India.International dental journal · 2026Article
- The need for equity in interventional cardiology care in sub-Saharan Africa.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- Assessing sustainability effects of tobacco use and control in global supply chains.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Health taxation and need to pay health related taxes in Iran: A scoping review.Health promotion perspectives · 2025Review
- Changes in Price, Consumption, Prevalence, and State Revenue of Transitioning Cigarette Sales to State-Controlled Outlets.American journal of preventive medicine · 2025Article
- Tobacco kills: stronger excise taxes would save lives.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025Article
- An international treaty to regulate misuse of alcohol and cannabis.Nature medicine · 2025Article
- Cardiovascular disease in the Americas: the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease and its risk factors.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2025Review
- Editorial: Raising awareness around trends in noncommunicable diseases and their risk factors to promote global prevention and control.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Prevalence and Factors Associated With Alcohol Use Disorder Among People Attending Primary Health Care Facilities in Rupandehi District, Nepal.Global health, epidemiology and genomics · 2025Article
- Conceptually mapping how investing in essential public health functions (EPHFs) and common goods for health (CGH) can improve health system performance.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The article reviews the large body of evidence on how taxation affects the consumption of tobacco, alcohol, and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB). There is abundant evidence that demand for tobacco, alcohol, and SSB is price-responsive and that tax changes are quickly passed on to consumers. This suggests that taxes can be highly effective in changing consumption and reducing the burden of diseases associated with consuming these products. Tobacco, alcohol, and SSB industries oppose taxation on similar grounds, mostly on the regressivity of taxes since regressive taxes take a larger percentage of income from low income earners than from middle and high income earners; but also on the effects taxes might have on employment and economic activity; and, in the case of tobacco, the effects taxation has on illicit trade.Contrary to industry arguments, evidence shows that taxation may have short-term negative financial consequences for low-income households. However, medium and long-term financial benefits from reduced healthcare costs, better health, and welfare largely compensate for such consequences. Moreover, taxation does not negatively affect aggregate economic activity or employment, as consumers switch demand to other products that generate employment and may compensate for any employment loss in taxed sectors. Evidence also shows the revenues generated are generally spent on labour-intensive services. In the case of illicit trade in tobacco, evidence shows that illicit trade has not increased globally (rather the opposite) despite increases in tobacco taxes. Profit-maximising smugglers increase illicit cigarette prices along with the increases in licit cigarette prices. This implies that even when increased taxes divert some demand to the illicit market, they push prices up in the illicit market, discouraging consumption.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.