Impacts of Health Taxes on the Attainment of the SDGs

Norman Maldonado-Vargas and Blanca Llorente

Chapter 7 in Health Taxes:Policy and Practice, 2023, pp 163-224 from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

Abstract: The reduction in consumption of harmful products triggered by increases in health taxes has effects in multiple development dimensions beyond health. We firstly review the evidence on health taxes’ effects on Sustainable Development (SD), and secondly, we provide guidance for policymakers on how to make a stronger case for health taxes by emphasising their role as policy instruments for development. We show that the effects on SD go beyond income inequalities or the progressive/regressive nature of health taxes. In general, health taxes positively affect the three systems that sustain human life, namely, the global society, the earth’s physical system and the world’s economy. Despite the need for more research and for stronger monitoring and evaluation of health taxes, we provide enough evidence to support a strong case for health taxes from a SD perspective. Reframing health taxes with a SD perspective in all stages of the policy cycle has enormous potential to gain wider societal support for progress on global uptake and increase of health taxes.

Keywords: Health Tax; Health Taxes; Tobacco Tax; Alcohol Tax; Sugary Drinks Tax; SSB Tax; Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Tax; Fiscal Policy; Health; Non-communicable Diseases; NCDs; Health Financing; Public Finance; Public Health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I1 I15 K32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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