To combat growing levels of obesity, health related taxes have been suggested with taxes on foods high in fat or sugar. Such taxes have been criticised on the basis of their regressivity and potentially adverse impact upon poverty. This paper analyses the effect of such taxes on a range of...

This paper reviews the extent to which policy interventions can affect risky behaviours such as smoking, drinking and diet. The justification for such intervention is typically a market failure, broadly defined. The types of market failure typically encountered are discussed. First and second...

This paper investigates the impact of own-health,and that of others, on individual labour supply. We estimate a model of hours of caring and hours of work using a large micro dataset of UK households. We find that own ill health has a negative effect on wages for men but not women; being a carer...

This paper examines the issues involved in setting the appropriate tax on cigarettes in Ireland. It compares Irish tax rates with those in other EU countries and then examines the external costs of cigarette consumption in Ireland. The paper concludes by reviewing some recent evidence that...

The distributional characteristic is a measure which can be used in many applications in social cost-benefit analysis. In the application here, the distributional characteristics of a number of broad aggregates of goods are calculated for Ireland. These calculations can aid in assessing the...

This paper reviews Irish evidence on the link between socioeconomic factors and various measures of mental stress and well-being. The paper reviews both cross-section and time-series studies and finds that of all socioeconomic determinants, the most consistent role is found for unemployment. In...