Tuesday, May 21, 2024

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Ballroom B

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Details

Health taxes are used as a fiscal policy instrument aimed at reducing individuals’ harmful consumption of products such as tobacco, alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) with the ultimate goal of reducing consumption-related adverse health outcomes. Health taxes have multiple goals: to reduce demand for the taxed products in order to reduce consumption-related “externalities” (e.g., additional publicly funded healthcare costs, productivity costs) and “internalities” (e.g., inconsistent time preferences related to individual harm), and to generate revenue which can be used to fund complementary health promotion efforts. The key mechanism through which this occurs is that taxes generally result in higher prices for consumers, known as tax pass-through, which in turn reduces demand. However, to fully understand the underpinnings of the net impact on consumption and ultimately health outcomes, it is also important to understand the extent to which taxes may induce substitution (e.g., to other non-taxed beverages, sweets or snacks) and the extent that consumers may undertake explicit tax avoidance behaviors such as cross-border shopping, which may offset improvements in diet from the taxes. Additionally, a concern frequently raised by industry when such taxes are being proposed is that they will lead to job losses or that they are regressive. Rigorous empirical evidence related to both intended and unintended consequences of SSB taxes is critical for policymakers in order for them to design evidence-based efficient policies to improve population health. This presentation will provide worldwide evidence on impacts of SSB taxes on prices, demand, and health; an overview of evidence related to counter-arguments to SSB taxes including concerns related to employment, regressivity/equity and tax avoidance; and, a discussion of opportunities for SSB tax policy development.

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Speaker

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Chair

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Speaker