Hand-to-Mouth Consumption and Calorie Consciousness: Consequences for Junk-Food Taxation
| Autor: | Nathalie Mathieu-Bolh |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Economics and Econometrics
Calorie Public Administration Junk food media_common.quotation_subject Intertemporal choice Relative price 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Weight loss 0502 economics and business Economics medicine 030212 general & internal medicine 050207 economics Empirical evidence health care economics and organizations Budget constraint media_common Consumption (economics) Tax policy Public economics 05 social sciences medicine.disease Obesity Bounded rationality Educational attainment Mixed effects Consciousness medicine.symptom Finance |
| Zdroj: | SSRN Electronic Journal. |
| ISSN: | 1556-5068 |
| DOI: | 10.2139/ssrn.3424137 |
| Popis: | Junk-food taxes have mixed effects on obesity and junk-food consumption. We build a theoretical model to explain empirical results and better understand how to address the obesity crisis. In our framework, hand-to-mouth consumers make an intertemporal choice between junk-food consumption and weight loss. Their choice depends on calorie consciousness, which is influenced by perceived after-tax relative prices and educational attainment. Thus, a junk-food tax modifies consumers’ intertemporal choice both through their budget constraint and calorie consciousness. As a result, the effect of the tax on body weight reflects competing income, intertemporal substitution, and calorie-consciousness effects. The model explains empirical observations such as the recent rise in obesity and differences in weight outcomes for different income levels. The model explains circumstances under which junk-food taxes can be effective or ineffective to reduce body weight as well as differences in elasticities of high-calorie food consumption for high- and low-income earners. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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