Fiscal policy to improve diets and prevent noncommunicable diseases: from recommendations to action

Abstract

The World Health Organization has recommended that Member States consider taxing energy-dense beverages and foods and/or subsidizing nutrient-rich foods to improve diets and prevent noncommunicable diseases. Numerous countries have either implemented taxes on energy-dense beverages and foods or are considering the implementation of such taxes. However, several major challenges to the implementation of fiscal policies to improve diets and prevent noncommunicable diseases remain. Some of these challenges relate to the cross-sectoral nature of the relevant interventions. For example, as health and economic policy-makers have different administrative concerns, performance indicators and priorities, they often consider different forms of evidence in their decision-making. In this paper, we describe the evidence base for diet-related interventions based on fiscal policies and consider the key questions that need to be asked by both health and economic policy-makers. From the health sector’s perspective, there is most evidence for the impact of taxes and subsidies on diets, with less evidence on their impacts on body weight or health. We highlight the importance of scope, the role of industry, the use of revenue and regressive taxes in informing policy decisions.

The true price of sugar‐sweetened disease: political inertia requires renewed, strategic action

“…Effective policy must take political economy into account. Decision makers in the agriculture and finance sectors have their own agendas and responsibilities, requiring input on effective policy design, administrative procedures and any likely impact on employment, industry and livelihoods 26 …”

“…Decision makers in the agriculture and finance sectors have their own agendas and responsibilities, requiring input on effective policy design, administrative procedures and any likely impact on employment, industry and livelihoods. 26 Preliminary insights are available: we know Australia's goods and services tax provides existing administrative machinery for collecting food and beverage taxes. We also know 80e85% of domestic sugar production is exported, 27 potentially mitigating local policy impacts.…”

The Political Economy of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Taxation in Latin America: Lessons from Mexico, Chile and Colombia

“…Existing evidence of the nancial and health impacts of these policy instruments remains inconclusive (11)(12)(13)15), and policymakers face varied challenges when designing health-related taxes (16)(17)(18)(19). Clouding public policy debates has been the substantial participation of commercial interests, notably large TNCs and SSBs producers, whose business models are threatened by proposed scal measures (20). Their political-economic power, across all levels of government (21), and the limited accountability and transparency mechanisms available to local governments and civil society groups to monitor and identify their undue in uence, raises concerns about industry interference and con icts of interest during the policy making process (12,(22)(23)(24), (20,22).…”

“…Clouding public policy debates has been the substantial participation of commercial interests, notably large TNCs and SSBs producers, whose business models are threatened by proposed scal measures (20). Their political-economic power, across all levels of government (21), and the limited accountability and transparency mechanisms available to local governments and civil society groups to monitor and identify their undue in uence, raises concerns about industry interference and con icts of interest during the policy making process (12,(22)(23)(24), (20,22). In this context, it remains unclear how best to adopt SSBs in the region.…”

Essays in health and labor economics

“…Many countries recently implemented taxes on SSBs, including Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Mexico, and the United Kingdom (Thow et al, 2018). We contribute to this early literature on the pass-through of taxes on SSBs.…”