Taxation at the Edge of Morality: A Statewide RCT on California Tobacco Excise Enforcement

Excise enforcement on goods with contested moral standing — tobacco, cannabis — is an unusually hard case for tax compliance: it pits state legitimacy against the buyer’s own view of whether the activity should be taxed at all. Taxation at the Edge of Morality runs a statewide RCT in California, varying the framing and intensity of enforcement messaging delivered to licensed tobacco retailers, with the second wave of the trial fielding mid-2026. The project will measure whether morally-loaded enforcement triggers compliance gains, displacement to grey-market sales, or backlash against the enforcing agency.