New IEA research calls on government to do more to end state-funded political activismSummary:The IEA has previously published two reports about state-funded political activism (Sock Puppets and Euro Puppets). This discussion paper provides further evidence of ‘government lobbying...

Research into the overall impact of plain packagingSummary●‘ Plain’ or ‘standardised’ packaging bans the use of company logos, colours and trademarks on a product’s packaging and allows governments to design the outward appearance of goods.On tobacco products in Australia, this has...

The problems with alcohol policy in the UKSummaryAlcohol policy in Britain and many other countries aims to reduce per capita alcohol consumption in the belief that this will inevitably reduce heavy and harmful drinking. The cornerstone policies of this approach are advertising bans, licensing...

The benefits of innovation are unpredictable and hard to quantify. Fear of adverse consequences can lead to excessive emphasis on risk avoidance, leading to regulation that holds back beneficial innovation. The experience in tobacco harm reduction illustrates this.Innovative reduced-risk...

Minimum unit pricing (MUP) sets a floor price on a unit of alcohol to prevent the sale of ‘cheap’ drinks, with the aim of reducing alcohol related harm. MUP was introduced in Scotland on 1 May 2018 at 50p per unit. This study estimates the financial cost to consumers in the four years since...