The distributional impact of fiscal policies to promote healthier diets in low- and middle-income countries

不健康的饮食和肥胖是非传染性疾病的主要风险因素，导致高昂的治疗费用、生产力和福利损失，对社会经济发展构成威胁。人们越来越关注消费税，以促进更健康的饮食，越来越多的证据支持其有效性。然而，它们对最贫困人口的经济影响令人担忧。虽然这些税收在只考虑购买征税产品的潜在支出增加时可能会出现倒退，但低收入消费者可能会通过更大程度地减少不健康食品消费而获得不成比例的健康益处。尽管这些潜在的健康收益也转化为经济利益，但这在文献中还没有被量化。我相信经济学的作用是确保预防性卫生政策改善社会福利及其在社会群体中的分配。我的目标是调查财政政策的分配影响，以促进低收入和中等收入国家的健康饮食，特别是在拉丁美洲，肥胖是普遍存在的。我将模拟不同财政政策对食品支出的影响，以及每个收入群体潜在的饮食改善所带来的福利，包括减少治疗与超重和不健康饮食相关的疾病的自付费用，以及增加终生劳动收入。减少过早死亡。

Unhealthy diet and obesity are major risk factors for noncommunicablediseases, leading to high treatment costs,productivity, and welfare losses, representing a threat tosocio-economic development. There is increased interest inconsumption taxes to promote healthier diets, with agrowing body of evidence supporting their effectiveness.However, their financial impact on the poorest is ofsignificant concern.While these taxes are likely to appear regressive whenconsidering only the potential increase in spending to buytaxed products, low-income consumers may experiencedisproportionate health benefits through larger reductionsin unhealthy food consumption. Although these potentialhealth gains also translate into financial benefits, this hasnot yet been quantified in the literature.I believe that it is the role of economics to ensure thatpreventive health policies improve social welfare and itsdistribution across social groups. I aim to investigate thedistributional impact of fiscal policies to promote healthierdiets in low- and middle-income countries, particularly inLatin America where obesity is pervasive. I will model theimpact of different fiscal policies on food expenditures andthe welfare benefits derived from potential dietimprovements per income group, in terms of reduction inout-of-pocket expenditures to treat diseases related tooverweight and unhealthy diet and increased lifetimelabour incomes derived from reduced premature mortality.