Sustainable consumption: fiscal policies and household behaviour
- Autores: Wisdom Dogbe
- Directores de la Tesis: José María Gil Roig (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) ( España ) en 2019
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Yves Surry (presid.), Zein Kallas (secret.), Paolo Sckokai (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Sostenibilidad por la Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya
- Materias:
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- Resumen
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the influence of climate and health policies on personal well-being and the environment or both as well as how household behaviour influences the sustainability of health goals – prevalence of obesity. The most important contribution of this thesis is the application of new methods, use of experimental data and incorporation of national climate and health policy goals into our analysis. The thesis has six chapters, the first chapter deals with the introduction of the thesis whilst the last chapter summarizes the conclusion from the four main chapters comprising of four papers. The second Chapter investigates the effectiveness of carbon tax to promote climate-friendly food demand, welfare and diet quality in Spain. Tax policy scenarios were based on EU alternative social cost of emissions. Own- and cross-price elasticities of sixteen food groups were calculated from incomplete Exact Affine Stone Index (EASI) food demand system. Results show that price increases due to the tax reform reduces the consumption of the food products associated with higher CO2 equivalent emissions but improves diet quality. Even though the tax reform simultaneously improved both the environment and health, the tax was more regressive on low-income citizen’s welfare. The third Chapter investigates the effectiveness of a health tax reform on consumer welfare and diet quality. In this case, the tax policy scenario was based on internalizing the social cost of obesity in Spain. Using the 2012 Kantar homescan data, the EASI demand model was used to estimate nutrient price and expenditure elasticities. Results suggest marginal improvement in the quality of diet, although not in the very short term. Moreover, the consumption of health damaging nutrients such as saturated fatty acid, sodium, and cholesterol decreased tremendously. From the welfare perspective, all household segments had expenditure savings. In Chapter four the thesis took a behavioural perspective due to the marginal impact of the taxes on reducing the consumption of both environmental and health damaging foods. As a result, this chapter assessed the link between psychological attitudes such as risk attitudes, time inconsistencies and body mass index (to account for the prevalence of obesity) in Catalonia. Experimental data on consumer attitudes towards risk, time inconsistencies and sociodemographic characteristics were collated from a section of Catalonian households in 2014. Econometric approaches based on prospect theory and time discounting were used to estimate the risk and time parameters, respectively. The results support a strong influence of risk aversion on the development of body mass index. Furthermore, time inconsistencies significantly influence individuals propensity to increase body mass index. The fifth Chapter brings together all the covariates that influence the development of obesity by investigating the psychological, behavioural and socioeconomic drivers of obesity in Catalonia using path model analysis. Experimental data that elicited risk preferences, time inconsistencies, believes about obese persons, attitudes towards obesity, body perception, body image dissatisfaction and body mass index consumers were used. A multivariate path model was used to estimate the path parameters linking the covariates. Results suggest significant direct and indirect relationships between obesity and most variables. Obesity is also directly influenced by believe that obesity is controllable, correct body image and body image dissatisfaction. Second, significant indirect relationship was found between obesity and attitudes towards persons with obesity. Socioeconomic factors that have significant influence of obesity include age and gender. Risk attitudes did not have any direct or indirect effects on obesity.
