International air travel may contribute to spread of infectious diseases (cf. this suggestive tweet; though wealth may be a confounder; poor countries may have more undetected cases). That’s an externality that travellers and airlines arguably should pay for, via a tax. The money would be used for defences against pandemics. Is this something that’s considered in existing taxation? If there should be such a pandemic flight tax, how large should it optimally be?
One option would be to create a separate international fund for pandemic response paid for by national-level taxes on industries with inherent disease risk—such as live animal producers and sellers, forestry and extractive industries—that could support recovery and lessen the toll of outbreaks on national economies.
International air travel may contribute to spread of infectious diseases (cf. this suggestive tweet; though wealth may be a confounder; poor countries may have more undetected cases). That’s an externality that travellers and airlines arguably should pay for, via a tax. The money would be used for defences against pandemics. Is this something that’s considered in existing taxation? If there should be such a pandemic flight tax, how large should it optimally be?
One might also consider whether there are other behaviours that increase the risk of pandemics that should be taxed for the same reason. Seb Farquhar, Owen Cotton-Barratt, and Andrew Snyder-Beattie already suggested that risk externalities should be priced into research with public health risks.
Foreign Affairs discussing similar ideas: