Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2013 Oct 22:5:519-43.
doi: 10.2147/CEOR.S49659.

A systematic review of the effectiveness of taxes on nonalcoholic beverages and high-in-fat foods as a means to prevent obesity trends

Nikolaos Maniadakis  1 , Vasiliki Kapaki, Louiza Damianidi, Georgia Kourlaba
Affiliations
Review

A systematic review of the effectiveness of taxes on nonalcoholic beverages and high-in-fat foods as a means to prevent obesity trends

Nikolaos Maniadakis et al. Clinicoecon Outcomes Res. .

Abstract

Background: As part of the efforts to curb obesity, a new focus seems to be put on taxing foods that are perceived as being associated with obesity (eg, sugar-sweetened beverages and foods high in fat, sugar, and salt content) as a policy instrument to promote healthier diets.

Objective: To assess the possible effects of such taxation policies by identifying and analyzing all studies which investigate the impact of price increases on consumption, caloric intake, or weight outcomes.

Methods: Electronic data bases were searched with appropriate terms and their combinations. Thereafter, abstracts were reviewed and studies were selected based on predefined criteria. The characteristics of the selected studies and the results were extracted in a special form and consequently were reviewed and synthesized.

Results: Price increase may lead to a reduction in consumption of the targeted products, but the subsequent effect on caloric intake may be much smaller. Only a limited number of the identified studies reported weight outcomes, most of which are either insignificant or very small in magnitude to make any improvement in public health.

Conclusion: The effectiveness of a taxation policy to curb obesity is doubtful and available evidence in most studies is not very straightforward due to the multiple complexities in consumer behavior and the underling substitution effects. There is need to investigate in-depth the potential underlying mechanisms and the relationship between price-increase policies, obesity, and public health outcomes.

Keywords: body mass index; calorie(s); elasticity; fat tax; price; sugar-sweetened beverages; weight.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Search terms utilized.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Flow chart of study selection.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Gustavsen GW. Public policies and the demand for carbonated soft drinks: a censored quantile regression approach; Poster presented at: 11th Congress of the European Association of Agricultural Economists; August 23–27, 2005; Copenhagen, Denmark.
    1. Yen ST, Lin BH, Smallwood DM, Andrews M. Demand for nonalcoholic beverages: the case of low-income households. Agribusiness. 2004;20(3):309–321.
    1. Brown MG, Lee JY, Seale JL. Demand relationships among juice beverages: a differential demand system approach. Journal of Agricul tural and Applied Economics. 1994;26(2):417–429.
    1. Pofahl GM, Capps O, Jr, Clauson A. Demand for non-alcoholic beverages: evidence from the ACNielsen Home Scan Panel; Poster presented at: American Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting; July 24–27, 2005; Providence, RI.
    1. Dharmasena S, Capps O., Jr Demand interrelationships of at home nonalcoholic beverage consumpion in the United States; Poster presented at: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association and American Council on Consumer Interests Joint Annual Meeting; July 28, 2009; Milwaukee, WI.