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危险因素，导致高昂的治疗成本、生产力和福利损失，对社会经济发展构成威胁。人们对消费税的兴趣与日俱增，以促进更健康的饮食，越来越多的证据支持它们的有效性。然而，它们对最贫穷者的财务影响是非常令人担忧的。当只考虑购买征税产品的潜在支出增加时，这些税可能看起来是倒退的，但低收入消费者可能会通过更大幅度地减少不健康的食品消费而体验到不成比例的健康益处。虽然这些潜在的健康收益也转化为经济利益，但这还没有在文献中量化。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在低收入和中等收入国家促进健康饮食的分配影响，特别是在肥胖普遍存在的拉丁美洲。我将模拟不同财政政策对食品支出的影响，以及从每个收入群体潜在的疾病改善中获得的福利福利，包括减少与超重和不健康饮食相关的疾病的自付支出，以及减少过早死亡带来的终生收入增加。

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.