A government clamp-down on sugar would be damaging and unnecessaryGovernment intervention in the market can only be justified if there is a market failure and if government action will make a positive difference. This paper looks at several potential failures in the sugar market. These include...

In March 2016, George Osborne announced a ‘sugar levy’ on soft drink companies to start in April 2018. Under this policy, companies will be taxed on sales of medium and high sugar drinks (excluding fruit juice and milk-based drinks). As an anti-obesity policy, the sugar levy seems arbitrary....

Taxing food and soft drinks in the name of obesity is not a new idea. Dozens of jurisdictions have experimented with such taxes over the years, allowing economists to study their impact. The results have consistently showed the following: demand for sugary drinks, snacks and fatty foods is...

It's time for a radical overhaul of state-funded charitiesNew research, released today, reveals the true extent of government funded lobbying by charities and pressure groups.This report argues that, when government funds the lobbying of itself, it is subverting democracy and debasing the...

A new IEA publication explores the case for deregulating the gambling marketExecutive summary:The 2005 Gambling Act was intended to modernise gambling in the United Kingdom by replacing the anachronistic 1968 Gaming Act with legislation better suited to the twenty-first century. The 1968 Act had...

IEA discussion paper shows the Treasury is losing as much as £1.2 billion every year to the illegal alcohol industry.Executive summary:One in ten bottles or cans of beer sold in the UK have not had duty paid on them and there are growing reports of counterfeit spirits being sold by licit and...

European Commission spending millions on pro-EU lobby groupsExecutive summary:With public confidence in the European project waning, the idea of initiating a ‘civil dialogue’ with the public emerged in the mid-1990s as a way of bolstering the EU’s democratic legitimacy.Citizens have not...

Evidence shows moral panic at gaming machines ill-foundedExecutive summaryThis paper assesses the claims made about gambling machines in British betting shops, in particular ‘fixed-odds betting terminals’. These machines are routinely dubbed ‘the crack cocaine of gambling’ and it is said...

New IEA research finds fat taxes would hit the poorest the hardestSummary:Denmark’s tax on saturated fat was hailed as a world-leading public health policy when it was introduced in October 2011, but it was abandoned fifteen months later when the unintended consequences became clear. This...

Poorest hit hardest by consumption taxes, new research showsSummaryThe poorest twenty per cent of households in Britain spend an average of £1,286 per year on ‘sin taxes’, including betting taxes, vehicle excise duty, air passenger duty, ‘green taxes’ and duty on tobacco, alcohol and...