In the past two years, at least five people in the UK have been killed by American XL bully dogs, prompting the Prime Minister himself to present a plan to control these dogs. The result of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision policy is that they will have to be registered, castrated, muzzled in public and insured, with possible to forbid follow.
The decision offers important lessons about regulation. First, sometimes it is better to ban outright than to charge fees to owners or users, or what economists call Pigou Taxes. According to some economic theories, bans should be extremely rare. Instead, the government should charge high fees for the right to own or use something. In this case, people who are serious about keeping their XL bully dogs will simply pay more for a license.