Taxation of unhealthy consumption of food and drinks: an updated literature review

• Autores: Joan Gil Carbonell, Guillem López i Casasnovas, Toni Mora
• Localización: Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, ISSN 0210-1173, Nº 207, 2013, págs. 119-140
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • By means of a literature review this paper aims at shedding more light on the potentialities of unhealthyfood/drink taxation in changing eating patterns and life styles and hence combating the obesity epidem-ic. One remarkable point that emerges when assessing the set of selected papers is the existence of a widediversity of objectives, methodologies, settings and datasets, policies implemented and results achievedby all these studies, which undoubtedly adds complexity to any attempt to draw a general conclusion onfast food taxation. Most of the examined studies predict a rather modest fiscal impact on unhealthy foodand drinks consumption and/or nutrition intake and consequently a poor result on weight loss and obesi-ty, by the interplay of several factors among them the effects of cross-price elasticities