Taxing Bottled Water as an Environmental Policy

Andrew Stevens, Peter Berck, and Sofia Berto Villas-Boas

from ARE Update Vol. 19, No. 4, Mar/Apr, 2016

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Abstract

Litter from plastic water bottles is an environmental concern for cities and states throughout the country. One potential policy response to this issue is to implement a consumer tax on bottled water in hopes that the subsequent reduction in total sales translates into less litter. We explore evidence from Washington state to analyze how effective and efficient a consumer tax on bottled water is as an environmental policy.

Keywords

consumer response, demand estimation, sales tax, litter, Washington state

Citation

Andrew Stevens, Peter Berck, and Sofia Berto Villas-Boas. 2016. "Taxing Bottled Water as an Environmental Policy." ARE Update 19(4): 9-11. University of California Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics.
https://giannini.ucop.edu/filer/file/1461278500/17280/