The net benefit of increasing alcohol taxation in Thailand

The purpose of this paper is to calculate the effects of increasing alcohol taxation in Thailand. Standard economic analysis is applied to data from a range of sources. Results suggest that alcohol taxes in Thailand have only a small impact on consumption. Thus an alcohol tax increase results in only a modest rise in deadweight loss and a small reduction in social costs. Increasing the tax rate on alcohol generates higher expenditure and government tax revenue. Overall taxes on alcoholic beverages result in net benefits to the Thai economy.