Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Curb Your Enthusiasm For Pigouvian Taxes, Victor Fleischer

Victor Fleischer

Pigouvian (or "corrective") taxes have been proposed or enacted on dozens of products and activities that may be harmful in excess: carbon, gasoline, fat, sugar, guns, cigarettes, alcohol, traffic, zoning, executive pay, and financial transactions, among others. Academics of all political stripes are mystified by the public’s inability to see the merits of using Pigouvian taxes more frequently to address serious social harms.

This enthusiasm for Pigouvian taxes should be tempered. A Pigouvian tax is easy to design—as a uniform excise tax—if one assumes that each individual causes the same amount of harm with each incremental increase in activity on …

Ivf And The Law: How Legal And Regulatory Neglect Compromised A Medical Breakthrough, Steve Calandrillo

Steve P. Calandrillo

The rise of assisted reproductive technology like in vitro fertilization (IVF) as a method of human reproduction represents a remarkable medical achievement. It has allowed millions of infertile and same-sex couples to have children who were previously only the subject of their unrequited dreams. Live births and success rates have increased dramatically in the past decade, so much so that many fertility clinics “guarantee” a baby to clients who sign up. But with success comes inevitable downsides. Everyone knows that the price tag is steep, but given the demand, that obstacle seems to deter relatively few determined individuals. More insidious …