Designing Effective Alcohol Excise Taxes: Country Case Studies

This Policy Note was written by the Economics for Health team. The policy note discusses the alcohol excise tax policies in four countries which implement more effective or thoughtful tax policies than many of their counterparts: Australia, Finland, Lithuania, and the Netherlands. The authors present the strengths of each tax policy, as well as the opportunities to better align with best practices in alcohol taxes and reap the associated public health and fiscal benefits. The experiences in these countries can serve as useful lessons for other governments considering alcohol tax policy reform. The policy note concludes by outlining recommendations for policy makers to utilize a specific tax system based on alcohol content, and harmonized across beverage types, with regular adjustments for inflation and income growth to reduce alcohol consumption and lead to economic, health, and social gains.