Taxes and Subsidies for Improving Diet and Population Health in Australia: A Cost-Effectiveness Modelling Study

Linda J Cobiac, King Tam, Lennert Veerman and Tony Blakely

PLOS Medicine, 2017, vol. 14, issue 2, 1-18

Abstract: Background: An increasing number of countries are implementing taxes on unhealthy foods and drinks to address the growing burden of dietary-related disease, but the cost-effectiveness of combining taxes on unhealthy foods and subsidies on healthy foods is not well understood. Methods and Findings: Using a population model of dietary-related diseases and health care costs and food price elasticities, we simulated the effect of taxes on saturated fat, salt, sugar, and sugar-sweetened beverages and a subsidy on fruits and vegetables, over the lifetime of the Australian population. The sizes of the taxes and subsidy were set such that, when combined as a package, there would be a negligible effect on average weekly expenditure on food (

Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pmed00:1002232

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002232

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