Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS
Volume 94, Issue 3, Pages 611-646Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1093/ajae/aar138
Keywords
Fat Taxes; Food Policy; Market Model; Obesity; Welfare; Q18; I18; H20
Categories
Funding
- National Research Initiative of the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, USDA [2006-55215-16720]
- University of California Agricultural Issues Center
- Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics
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Many commentators claim that farm subsidies have contributed significantly to the obesity epidemic by making fattening foods relatively cheap and abundant and, symmetrically, that taxing unhealthy commodities or subsidizing healthy commodities would contribute to reducing obesity rates. In this article we use an equilibrium displacement model to estimate and compare the economic welfare effects from a range of hypothetical farm commodity and retail food policies as alternative mechanisms for encouraging consumption of healthy food or discouraging consumption of unhealthy food, or both. We find that, compared with retail taxes on fat, sugar, or all food, or subsidies on fruits and vegetables at the farm or retail levels, a tax on calories would be the most efficient obesity policy. A tax on calories would have the lowest deadweight loss per pound of fat reduction in average adult weight, and would yield a net social gain once the impact on public health care expenditures is considered.
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