Economic article

I decided to write about an article which investigated whether higher junk food taxes could lead to a reduction in obvesity.

It outlines that obesity is a problem not only rich countries face, where people have higher incomes yet live in poorer countries can be obese while at the same time that same country can have a malnourisment crisis. Furthermore, it discussed that increasing the price difference between healthier foods and highly processed foods could be a useful step toward reducing obesity in some countries, but could also worsen the issue with underweight, sometimes even within the same country.

It then went on to highlight the possible foods that could lead to obesity. Group 1 is unprocessed food and Group 4 is highly processed food. They used their import tariffs to evaluate the price difference between two categories of foods: highly processed (Group 4) and less processed food products (Groups 1 to 3). Their main hypothesis is that the difference in prices between highly processed and healthier products changes people’s food choices and thus affects the prevalence of obesity and underweight. To improve the accuracy of the hypothesis several other factors were used including: Income per capita (with lower income, people buy less and cheaper products) Percentage of population living in urban areas (people living in cities have better access to group 4 foods) Percentage of working women (their time available for preparing meals is less) Percentage of people aged 65 and above (their physical activity is less).

These are the separate food categories and the countries, which fall into different income groups, whose food eaten was measured and placed into the different food categories.

It was concluded that:

1. Obesity rates are higher when: Income per capita is higher. But once people are wealthy enough, additional income decreases obesity rates. The percentage of people living in urban areas is high. The percentage of working women is high. The percentage of people aged 65 and above is high.

2. The results of whether the price difference between healthier and highly processed foods have an impact on obesity depends on the countries’ state of development. For some countries, a consistent effect of additional taxes on highly processed foods on obesity couldn’t be determined apart from in lower-middle-income countries. In upper-middle-income countries the higher the taxes on highly processed foods are, the lower the obesity prevalence. In low-income countries, an increased price difference would reduce obesity rates.

3. Moreover,a tax on sugary foods often lead to a reduction in obesity, as a tax on highly processed foods created a movement towards healthier products. It is also important to note that advertisement from the government and education on healthy eating habits played a factor in the movement to healthier foods which was seen more in higher income countries.

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