The Animal-Welfare Levy

Nicolas Treich and Romain Espinosa

No 24-1503, TSE Working Papers from Toulouse School of Economics (TSE)

Abstract: We provide a non-anthropocentric rationale for implementing a levy on meat consumption due to animal-welfare considerations. It operates as a Pigouvian tax and addresses externalities on farmed animals. Under total utilitarianism, the levy is a subsidy when an animal’s life is worth living, and a tax when it is not. Under average utilitarianism, it is always a tax when human welfare exceeds animal welfare. Even under conservative assumptions, calibrated tax levels are substantial and would make most-intensive animal farms unprofitable. Taxes are significantly higher for chickens and pigs than for cows, in contrast to the taxation of other meat externalities.

Keywords: Animal welfare; meat; Pigouvian taxation; utilitarianism; life worth; living; quality-adjusted life years; population ethics. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H41 I31 Q18 Q50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pbe
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tse:wpaper:129033

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