Tagged: Sugar Tax

Junk food and sugar-sweetened beverage taxes: Likely to produce numerous benefits in NZ - Unsorted

Public Health Expert • Apr 11, 2022 •

• Junk Food,
• New Zealand stories,
• Obesity,
• Sugar Tax

Dr Leah Grout, Dr Nhung Nghiem, Dr Christine Cleghorn* Poor diet is a major risk factor for excess weight gain and obesity-related diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes mellitus, osteoarthritis, and multiple cancers. In this blog we summarise our recent modelling work that suggests that the implementation of taxes on unhealthy foods and beverages in Aotearoa New Zealand … Read More

Not-so-sweet advice - The Dismal Science

Eric Crampton • Sep 14, 2018 •

• chief science advisors,
• Sugar Tax

Imagine that you were the Chief Science Adviser for a Ministry. You need to produce a short briefing note to the new government for some issue in your Ministry’s remit. Your Ministry had, just a couple weeks earlier, released a comprehensive report on the topic that your Ministry had commissioned from a top economics consultancy. Your Ministry had had the … Read More

Eric Crampton on the sugar tax and Otago’s response - The Dismal Science

Eric Crampton • Apr 06, 2018 •

• Australian Grattan Institute,
• cardiovascular disease,
• consumption,
• Health,
• health economics,
• Ministry of Health,
• quantum,
• social cost,
• sugar,
• Sugar Tax

Otago’s public health people, perhaps unsurprisingly, didn’t like NZIER’s take on sugar taxes. They’ve blogged on it here, but they seem to have missed a few important points. A Report commissioned by the Ministry of Health, written by NZIER, has recently been getting air-time as an argument against taxing sugary drinks.  However, the Report seems to us to be … Read More

And now the Brits are doing it: A sugary drink tax levy on the industry - Public Health Expert

Public Health Expert • Apr 03, 2018 •

• Diabetes,
• economics,
• Grattan institute,
• GST,
• Lancet,
• Obesity,
• soda,
• soft drinks,
• sugar,
• Sugar Tax,
• tax,
• tobacco consumption,
• tony blakely,
• UK

Prof Tony Blakely, Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Anja Mizdrak, Dr Cristina Cleghorn From 1 April 2018, the UK is putting in place a type of sugary drinks tax – actually a “soft drinks industry levy”. This blog reviews how they are doing it, early signs of its success, and ponders its relevance for NZ.  We also take this opportunity to … Read More

Sweet Relief: Eric Crampton on the Sugar Tax - The Dismal Science

Eric Crampton • Mar 08, 2018 •

• economics,
• government,
• Ministry of Health,
• New Zealand,
• opinion,
• public health,
• Sugar Tax,
• treasury

For the past several years, public health lobbyists have pretended that all opposition to sugar taxes is ideologically motivated or dishonest. They have argued that the only thing stopping the government from implementing their beneficent proposals has been the actions of nefarious interest groups. And so it is interesting to read what the Ministry of Health’s officials actually thought about … Read More

Sugar taxes – NZIER’s advice - The Dismal Science

Eric Crampton • Feb 02, 2018 •

• calories,
• consumer,
• Health,
• Health of the State,
• Ministry of Health,
• New Zealand,
• Sugar Tax

Sugar taxes just are not effective in improving health outcomes. When we surveyed the evidence for our report, The Health of the State, we found no compelling reason to think the things would work. NZIER’s report for the Ministry of Health reaches the same conclusion. First, some backstory and grousing about document release under OIA. Back in October, I … Read More

What public health lessons can NZ still learn from the United States? - Public Health Expert

Public Health Expert • Jan 30, 2018 •

• alcohol consumption,
• bike lanes,
• commuting,
• Mass media,
• media government,
• New Zealand,
• pregnancy,
• public health,
• Smoking,
• Sugar Tax,
• taxation,
• tobacco industry,
• United States,
• vegetables

Prof Nick Wilson, A/Prof George Thomson The United States has many major health problems – including declining life expectancy and an exorbitantly expensive health care system. However, the large number of state and local governments provide a wealth of potential lessons that NZ could learn from. In this blog we briefly consider some of these, particularly in the domains of … Read More

The Sugar Levy: a Briefing - The Dismal Science

Paul Walker • Jan 15, 2018 •

• Britain,
• Budget,
• diet drinks,
• levy,
• Obesity,
• Sugar Tax

In March 2016, Chancellor George Osborne announced a ‘sugar levy’ on manufacturers of soft drinks. Intended to begin in April 2018, the plan is for a two-tier tax with one rate set for drinks containing more The IEA in London has released a short paper, The Sugar Levy: A Briefing, on … Read More

Let’s talk about taxing those sweet, sweet sugary drinks - Unsorted

Public Health Expert • Jul 05, 2017 •

• Sugar Tax,
• sugary drinks,
• sweetened sugary beverages,
• tax,
• Uncategorized

How much revenue would a New Zealand sugary drink tax raise? And how might be best to do it? Last week a FIZZ symposium was run in Auckland. A key focus was moving New Zealand towards adopting a sugary drink tax. As part of the policy briefing prepared for this FIZZ Symposium, we were asked to estimate the revenue from … Read More

Mexican soda and sweet storable substitutes - The Dismal Science

Eric Crampton • Mar 02, 2017 •

• Mexico,
• public health,
• soda,
• sugar,
• Sugar Tax

A couple more important points on the Mexican soda tax,  which I discussed in relation to a recent report on sugar taxes in New Zealand. First from the comments on Tuesday’s post: Mexicans also love to drink uncarbonated sugary drinks, like horchata, and drink more of those now carbonated beverages are more dear. Much of that market doesn’t go … Read More