Sockerskatt – en möjlig väg att styra svenskarnas sockerintag mot en mer hälsosam nivå?
(2013) NEKH01 20131Department of Economics
- Abstract
- Taxing sugar-sweetened foods has become a relevant question in Sweden. Proofs of this are the population’s huge intake of added sugar, an increasing share of obesity and large related medical treatment costs. This thesis gives a hands-on suggestion of how a tax on sugar-sweetened foods in Sweden could be constructed. The goal of this study is to decrease the sugar intake by 70 percentages of five different food groups, all with a high value of added sugar. We have been using two different models for tax estimation. The first model estimates an in-common tax rate for several sugar-sweetened products, while the other one estimates individual taxes for each analyzed group of foods. The data material is based upon Swedish statistics of prices,... (More)
- Taxing sugar-sweetened foods has become a relevant question in Sweden. Proofs of this are the population’s huge intake of added sugar, an increasing share of obesity and large related medical treatment costs. This thesis gives a hands-on suggestion of how a tax on sugar-sweetened foods in Sweden could be constructed. The goal of this study is to decrease the sugar intake by 70 percentages of five different food groups, all with a high value of added sugar. We have been using two different models for tax estimation. The first model estimates an in-common tax rate for several sugar-sweetened products, while the other one estimates individual taxes for each analyzed group of foods. The data material is based upon Swedish statistics of prices, earnings and consumption data reaching from 1980 to 2011. By analyzing the price elasticities of the examined food groups, we found that a tax would reduce the demand of soda, candy (including chocolate), pastries (including cookies) and buns. The chosen model was to impose individual ad-valorem taxes for each of the four groups. The tax rates needed in order to lower consumption, and also the intake of added sugar, by 70 percentages would be 78, 422, 126 and 67 percentages respectively. The reason for not choosing the in-common tax was due to large differences in price elasticities. This caused the tax construction to be inefficient by its lesser effect on consumption patterns. The results with taxes reaching all the way from 67 up to 422 percentages, suggests that to change consumption patterns require substantial efforts in taxation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/3878623
- author
- Artursson, Erik LU and Holmgren, Josephine LU
- supervisor
- organization
- alternative title
- En studie om vilken prisökning som skulle krävas för att nå rekommenderat intag
- course
- NEKH01 20131
- year
- 2013
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- sugar tax, sugar sweetened foods, Price elasticity, health economics.
- language
- English
- id
- 3878623
- date added to LUP
- 2013-06-24 12:27:58
- date last changed
- 2013-10-08 13:08:11
@misc{3878623, abstract = {{Taxing sugar-sweetened foods has become a relevant question in Sweden. Proofs of this are the population’s huge intake of added sugar, an increasing share of obesity and large related medical treatment costs. This thesis gives a hands-on suggestion of how a tax on sugar-sweetened foods in Sweden could be constructed. The goal of this study is to decrease the sugar intake by 70 percentages of five different food groups, all with a high value of added sugar. We have been using two different models for tax estimation. The first model estimates an in-common tax rate for several sugar-sweetened products, while the other one estimates individual taxes for each analyzed group of foods. The data material is based upon Swedish statistics of prices, earnings and consumption data reaching from 1980 to 2011. By analyzing the price elasticities of the examined food groups, we found that a tax would reduce the demand of soda, candy (including chocolate), pastries (including cookies) and buns. The chosen model was to impose individual ad-valorem taxes for each of the four groups. The tax rates needed in order to lower consumption, and also the intake of added sugar, by 70 percentages would be 78, 422, 126 and 67 percentages respectively. The reason for not choosing the in-common tax was due to large differences in price elasticities. This caused the tax construction to be inefficient by its lesser effect on consumption patterns. The results with taxes reaching all the way from 67 up to 422 percentages, suggests that to change consumption patterns require substantial efforts in taxation.}}, author = {{Artursson, Erik and Holmgren, Josephine}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, title = {{Sockerskatt – en möjlig väg att styra svenskarnas sockerintag mot en mer hälsosam nivå?}}, year = {{2013}}, }