Taxing highly processed foods: What could be the impacts on obesity and underweight in sub-Saharan Africa?
The consumption of highly processed food has been singled out as one of the factors responsible for the rapidly increasing prevalence of obesity and its associated non-communicable diseases and costs. While obesity prevalence is still comparatively low in lower-income sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), devel...
| Autores principales: | , , , |
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| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Elsevier
2019
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/164662 |
| _version_ | 1855521668805427200 |
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| author | Boysen, Ole Boysen-Urban, Kirsten Bradford, Harvey Balié, Jean |
| author_browse | Balié, Jean Boysen, Ole Boysen-Urban, Kirsten Bradford, Harvey |
| author_facet | Boysen, Ole Boysen-Urban, Kirsten Bradford, Harvey Balié, Jean |
| author_sort | Boysen, Ole |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | The consumption of highly processed food has been singled out as one of the factors responsible for the rapidly increasing prevalence of obesity and its associated non-communicable diseases and costs. While obesity prevalence is still comparatively low in lower-income sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), development prospects in this region render markets especially attractive for these foods, whose consumption is already growing at higher rates than in developed countries. This might be reflected in the massive rise in obesity prevalence growth rates in SSA over the past decade, while many of these countries are simultaneously struggling with high undernutrition prevalence. Using a newly constructed cross-country panel dataset, this study econometrically investigates the effect of higher import tariffs on highly processed vis-à-vis less-processed foods with respect to their impacts on obesity and underweight prevalence in the adult population. While the analysis is global, the discussion focuses primarily on SSA. The effects of the tariff differences are found to be significant and substantial and to differ by income level of the country as well as by gender. More generally, the results show that policies affecting the consumer price differential between the two food groups are effective in influencing obesity and underweight prevalence and that these two issues cannot be treated separately. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace164662 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publishDateRange | 2019 |
| publishDateSort | 2019 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| publisherStr | Elsevier |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1646622024-12-19T14:12:20Z Taxing highly processed foods: What could be the impacts on obesity and underweight in sub-Saharan Africa? Boysen, Ole Boysen-Urban, Kirsten Bradford, Harvey Balié, Jean development economics and econometrics geography planning and development sociology and political science The consumption of highly processed food has been singled out as one of the factors responsible for the rapidly increasing prevalence of obesity and its associated non-communicable diseases and costs. While obesity prevalence is still comparatively low in lower-income sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), development prospects in this region render markets especially attractive for these foods, whose consumption is already growing at higher rates than in developed countries. This might be reflected in the massive rise in obesity prevalence growth rates in SSA over the past decade, while many of these countries are simultaneously struggling with high undernutrition prevalence. Using a newly constructed cross-country panel dataset, this study econometrically investigates the effect of higher import tariffs on highly processed vis-à-vis less-processed foods with respect to their impacts on obesity and underweight prevalence in the adult population. While the analysis is global, the discussion focuses primarily on SSA. The effects of the tariff differences are found to be significant and substantial and to differ by income level of the country as well as by gender. More generally, the results show that policies affecting the consumer price differential between the two food groups are effective in influencing obesity and underweight prevalence and that these two issues cannot be treated separately. 2019-07 2024-12-19T12:54:09Z 2024-12-19T12:54:09Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/164662 en Open Access Elsevier Boysen, Ole; Boysen-Urban, Kirsten; Bradford, Harvey and Balié, Jean. 2019. Taxing highly processed foods: What could be the impacts on obesity and underweight in sub-Saharan Africa?. World Development, Volume 119 p. 55-67 |
| spellingShingle | development economics and econometrics geography planning and development sociology and political science Boysen, Ole Boysen-Urban, Kirsten Bradford, Harvey Balié, Jean Taxing highly processed foods: What could be the impacts on obesity and underweight in sub-Saharan Africa? |
| title | Taxing highly processed foods: What could be the impacts on obesity and underweight in sub-Saharan Africa? |
| title_full | Taxing highly processed foods: What could be the impacts on obesity and underweight in sub-Saharan Africa? |
| title_fullStr | Taxing highly processed foods: What could be the impacts on obesity and underweight in sub-Saharan Africa? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Taxing highly processed foods: What could be the impacts on obesity and underweight in sub-Saharan Africa? |
| title_short | Taxing highly processed foods: What could be the impacts on obesity and underweight in sub-Saharan Africa? |
| title_sort | taxing highly processed foods what could be the impacts on obesity and underweight in sub saharan africa |
| topic | development economics and econometrics geography planning and development sociology and political science |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/164662 |
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