Promoting Healthier Purchases: Ultraprocessed Food Taxes and Minimally Processed Foods Subsidies for the Low Income.

Introduction: Fiscal policies can shift relative food prices to encourage the purchase and consumption of minimally processed foods while discouraging the purchase and consumption of unhealthy ultraprocessed foods, high in calories and nutrients of concern (sodium, sugar, and saturated fats), especially for low-income households.

Methods: The 2017-2018 packaged food purchase data among U.S.

Did mental and emotional health of SNAP families' children improve during the COVID-19 pandemic?

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected low-income households in the United States. As part of the government's response to the pandemic, households with children participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefited from several temporary provisions. This study examines whether the mental/emotional well-being of children in SNAP families was influenced by the SNAP temporary provisions, overall and across subpopulations by race/ethnicity and school meal programs (SMP) participation status of children.

Would A National Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax In The United States Be Well Targeted?

Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes have been proposed to discourage excessive sugar consumption, but it is unclear how high- vs. low-SSB purchasers respond to such taxes. We first examine heterogeneity in the purchase and financial effects of a national SSB tax across different types of households buying varying amounts of SSBs.

Linking a sugar-sweetened beverage tax with fruit and vegetable subsidies: A simulation analysis of the impact on the poor.

Background: US individuals, particularly from low-income subpopulations, have very poor diet quality. Policies encouraging shifts from consuming unhealthy food towards healthy food consumption are needed.

Objectives: We simulate the differential impacts of a national sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax and combinations of SSB taxes with fruit and vegetable (FV) subsidies targeted to low-income households on SSB and FV purchases of lower and higher SSB purchasers.

The New school food standards and nutrition of school children: Direct and Indirect Effect Analysis.

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) of 2010 made sweeping changes to school nutritional standards. We estimate the impacts of shifts in school nutritional standards on dietary quality as well as dietary quantity of children's food intakes from school and away-from-school food sources. We find the average effect of consuming school food, rather than away-from-school food, on children's overall dietary quality significantly increased from the pre- to post-HHFKA implementation period.

Distributional Changes in U.S. Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Purchases, 2002-2014.

Introduction: U.S. policy actions focus on reducing sugar-sweetened beverage purchases.

Combined fiscal policies to promote healthier diets: Effects on purchases and consumer welfare.

Taxes on unhealthy foods and sweetened beverages, as well as subsidies to healthy foods, have become increasingly popular strategies to curb obesity and related non-communicable diseases. The existing evidence on the welfare effects of such fiscal policies is mixed and almost uniquely focused on tax schemes. Using the 2016-2017 Chilean Household Budget Survey, we estimate a censored Exact Affine Stone Index (EASI) incomplete demand system and simulate changes in purchases, tax incidence, and consumer welfare of three different policy scenarios: (1) a 5 percentage point additional tax on sweetened beverages (currently taxed at 18%) and a new 18% tax on sweets and snacks, (2) a healthy subsidy by zero-rating fruits and vegetables from the current 19% value-added tax, and (3) a combined (tax plus subsidy) policy.