[Economic instruments for promotion of prevention]

The classical economic instruments for influencing individual behaviour are regulatory and sumptuary taxes as well as subsidies. Regulatory taxes are forced payments, which are fixed exclusively to influence a group of individuals in the manner required by the government. Sumptuary taxes are levied in order to eliminate differences between private and societal costs (e.g. with smoking). Here the externality tax takes first place. Subsidies, finally, are a special aid, which should motivate the recipient to behave in a certain way. They can--in the same way as regulatory and sumptuary taxes--, by influencing the price structure, be employed in various ways to partronize preventative behaviour.