Determining the impact of food price and income changes on body weight

Schroeter, Christiane; Lusk, Jayson L.; Tyner, Wallace E.

doi:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2007.04.001

Cited by 173 publications

(134 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Several recommendations did not describe the specific tax used or proposed (3,(49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54)(55)(56)(57) . While this strategy allows tax policy makers to select the most appropriate tool for (16,(62)(63)(64) In line with revenue-maximising priorities Feasible if some 'unhealthy' foods are currently exempt from VAT (reduces exemptions) Increase VAT selectively (41,65) Contrary to move towards flat VAT rates…”

Section: Critical Assessment Of Recommendations For Nutrition Taxationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The global context for public health nutrition taxation

Thow

Heywood

Leeder

et al. 2010

Public Health Nutr.

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Objective: To assess critically the scope for public health nutrition taxation within the framework of the global tax reform agenda. Design: Review of the tax policy literature for global policy priorities relevant to public health nutrition taxation; critical analysis of proposals for public health nutrition taxation judged against the global agenda for tax reform. Setting: The global tax reform agenda shapes decisions of tax policy makers in all countries. By understanding this agenda, public health nutritionists can make feasible taxation proposals and thus improve the development, uptake and implementation of recommendations for nutrition-related taxation. Results: The priorities of the global tax reform agenda relevant to public health nutrition taxation are streamlining of taxes, adoption of value-added tax (VAT), minimisation of excise taxes (except to correct for externalities) and removal of import taxes in line with trade liberalisation policies. Proposals consistent with the global tax reform agenda have included excise taxes, extension of VAT to currently exempted (unhealthy) foods and tariff reductions for healthy foods. Conclusions: Proposals for public health nutrition taxation should (i) use existing types and rates of taxes where possible, (ii) use excise taxes that specifically address externalities, (iii) avoid differential VAT on foods and (iv) use import taxes in ways that comply with trade liberalisation priorities.

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Section: Critical Assessment Of Recommendations For Nutrition Taxationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The global context for public health nutrition taxation

Thow

Heywood

Leeder

et al. 2010

Public Health Nutr.

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“…To change dietary patterns most effectively, policies must target foods that contribute to improved diet quality; and, especially to reduce obesity, policies must overcome preferences for energy-dense foods. Analysis of such policies involves representing the role of the policy in affecting consumer incentives, constraints, and preferences (e.g., see Cash et al, 2005;Miljkovic, 2006;Schroeter et al, 2008).…”

Section: The Problem Of Rising Obesity In the United States: Trends Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Likely effects on obesity from proposed changes to the US food stamp program

et al. 2009

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Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of CaliforniaThis article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues.Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party websites are prohibited. a b s t r a c tSome have suggested that the US food stamp program (FSP) should be revised with a view to combating obesity among the poor. In this paper, we assess the likely impacts of allowing FSP participants to purchase only healthy foods when using food stamps. Our results indicate that FSP participants would probably increase their consumption of healthy food, but the implications for their purchases of unhealthy food are not clear. Market-wide consequences are even less clear, because changing what may be purchased using food stamps would lead to higher prices for healthy foods and lower prices for unhealthy foods and these price effects would feed back into consumer decisions, with adverse effects on consumption patterns of both participants and non-participants in the FSP. In addition, more restrictive rules on the use of food stamps would discourage participation in the FSP. We conclude that, while reforming the FSP may indeed to lead to better diets among participants, it is likely to be an ineffective and inefficient instrument for bringing about desired nutritional outcomes unless accompanied by additional policy instruments. Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. IntroductionLinks between poverty, policy, and nutritional outcomes are complex. For example, the growing numbers of people who are categorized as obese and overweight are drawn from all socioeconomic, ethnic, and demographic groups, but not uniformly. Several writers have observed that low-income women-including those receiving food stamps-are more likely than the rich to be obese and overweight (Gibson, 2003;Townsend et al., 2001). This observation leads to two questions. First, has the current food stamp program (FSP) contributed to growing obesity among the poor in the United States? Second, could the FSP be redesigned such that it would contribute towards improving diet quality and ultimately reducing obesity?The first of these questions is a question for careful model-driven statistical analysis of the historical data. Several studies in recent years have yielded a range of results, but the overall message from the published work is that, compared with non-participants, FSP participants tend to spend more on food, and more on food away from home, and are more like to be overweight or obese. Details differ among studies regarding the size of these effects among different demographic groups-in particular between male and female participants. 1 This paper explores the second question, which has not been subject to as much study though various...

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“…Conversely, it would be interesting to obtain direct estimates of overweight on changes in food consumption by changes in relative food prices, with a focus on the segmented groups of a society (Schroeter et al, 2008). The simultaneous absence in Italy of true panel data and discontinous surveys in measuring individuals weights (and heights, i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food prices and overweight patterns in Italy

2011

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in AbstractIn this paper we examine the role of relative food prices in determining the recent increase in body weight in Italy. Cross-price elasticities of unhealthy and healthy foods estimated by a demand system provide a consistent framework to evaluate substitution effects, when a close association is assumed between unhealthy (healthy) foods and more (less) energy-dense foods. We used a dataset constructed from a series of cross-sections of the Italian Household Budget Survey (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005) to obtain the variables of the demand system, which accounts for regional price variability. The relative increase of healthy food prices was found to produce nontrivial elasticities of substitution towards higher relative consumption of unhealthy foods, with effects on weight outcomes. In addition, these changes were unevenly distributed among individuals and were particularly significant for those who were poorer and had less education.

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Determining the impact of food price and income changes on body weight

Cited by 173 publications

References 27 publications

The global context for public health nutrition taxation

The global context for public health nutrition taxation

Likely effects on obesity from proposed changes to the US food stamp program

Food prices and overweight patterns in Italy

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