Publication: Taxes on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages: International Evidence and Experiences
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Date
2020-10
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2020-10
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Taxes on SSB are an increasingly popular fiscal policy for health. This brief summarizes the latest evidence on SSB tax implementation and effectiveness to support governments who are considering, or are in the process of developing, an SSB tax. Further details and references can be found in the accompanying report (World Bank 2020).
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“Hattersley, Libby; Thiebaud, Alessia; Fuchs, Alan; Gonima, Alberto; Silver, Lynn; Mandeville, Kate. 2020. Taxes on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages: International Evidence and Experiences. Health, Nutrition and Population Knowledge Brief;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35186 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Business, Employment, and Productivity Impacts of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Taxes(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06-30)Industry-sponsored studies reporting negative effects of SSB taxes on businesses, employment, and economic growth have been used very effectively to support arguments against SSB taxes and influence health-related policy. These studies tend to be based on questionable assumptions and provide only a partial picture of economic impacts. Emerging evidence from independent evaluation and modelling studies consistently identifies net positive economic impacts from SSB taxes, including overall employment and productivity gains, and increased government spending.Publication Health and Distributional Impacts of a Tax on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages in Kazakhstan(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-04)The promotion of healthy diets is at the center of many strategies to prevent and control noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) worldwide. Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) are the target of many of these strategies given their contribution to obesity and related diseases. In addition to detrimental health effects, overconsumption of SSBs can result in economic costs derived from health care expenditures, forgone productivity, permanent disability, and premature death. The World Health Organization (WHO 2017a) has concluded that one of the most effective tools for reducing obesity rates and other related NCDs is the implementation of taxes to increase the prices of SSBs by at least 20 percent. Epidemiological models indicate that taxing SSBs by sugar content could result in a 200 million-pound (90.7 million kilogram) weight reduction worldwide (Grummon, et al. 2019). This report represents the first adaptation of the extended cost-benefit analysis methodology to examine taxes on SSBs. The main outcome of interest is the net effect of the taxes on household income via three channels: (1) larger amount of household budget expenditure on SSBs, (2) savings in out-of-pocket (OOP) spending on health care because of lower disease incidence associated with reduced SSB consumption, and (3) higher labor income resulting from an increase in life-expectancy. The model uses the simplified assumption that a reduction in the consumption of SSBs has an immediate effect on health and so on employment-related income.Publication Health and Distributional Effects Taxing Sugar-Sweetened Beverages(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06)Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) has been linked to a range of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), including diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and over 12 types of cancer (Singh, et al. 2015). Increasingly, governments around the world are taxing SSBs to curb sugar consumption. 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