Consumption Tax, Nutritional Intake And Health

In recent years,the Chinese government has attached great importance to health issues and launched a Healthy China Strategy.The Healthy China Strategy calls for the concept of “Big Health” and follows the principle of health priority of putting health in a strategic position of priority development and integrating the concept of promoting health into the whole process of public policy formulation and implementation.The Chinese government has begun to realize the increasing prevalence of overweight,obesity,high blood pressure,and diabetes,and the resulting economic burden.As the foundation and important pillar of state governance,fiscal and taxation is undoubtedly the primary aspect of promoting healthy China.In April 2012,the World Health Organization released the report The Comprehensive Nutrition Plan for Pregnant Women and Infants,proposing that taxes and subsidies are important means to obtain and realize healthy diet choices.In May 2015,the World Health Organization released the report Healthy Diet and Fiscal Policy of NCD Prevention,proposing that a tax on sugary drinks can reduce sugar consumption and calls on governments to use fiscal measures to improve health.In September 2019,OECD released the Tax Reform Report of 2019,proposing that one of the characteristics of the latest tax reform is the consumption tax on unhealthy products such as sugary drinks becomes more and more popular.Globally,the consumption tax system that promotes nutrition and health is a powerful intervention to deal with the burden of obesity and non-communicable diseases.The number of countries which tax unhealthy food and drinks are increasing.So far,nearly 60 countries in the world have introduced a consumption tax system to promote nutrition and health.More and more countries have clearly stated that they will consider levying this tax in the future.Especially based on the background of tax reduction,it becomes more meaningful of levying a new tax.As an integral part of the consumption tax system,tax on unhealthy food and drink is the entry point.The research on the consumption tax system that promotes nutrition and health has strong novelty and necessity.On the one hand,it further broadens the research boundary of consumption tax,and on the other hand,it is beneficial to improve the health of residents.Is the consumption tax system that promotes nutrition and health really beneficial to health,and how effective is the policy? If the policy is effective,whether China can replicate the experience of other countries or not,the key question is the price elasticity.If China introduces a consumption tax system that promotes nutrition and health,how should the tax system be designed,and what are the differences in the health effects of different tax systems? These are the questions that this article needs to answer.Therefore,the core issues of this paper include the policy effectiveness to promote nutrition and health,the institutional simulation of China’s consumption tax system and the tax system design.From a macro level,this paper uses cross-country panel data to explore the health effects of the consumption tax system that promotes nutrition and health.From a micro level,it uses the China Health and Nutrition Survey data to simulate the health effects of China’s consumption tax system that promotes nutrition and health.Based on experimental data,this paper further explore the impact of different tax system design on health.The combination of macro and micro perspectives helps to analyze the health effects of the consumption and taxation system that promotes nutrition and health from point to point.The research contents of this paper are as follows: Firstly,the tax basis of unhealthy food and drink tax system,including theoretical basis and practical experience;Secondly,the effectiveness of the consumption tax system for nutrition and health and the health effect simulation;Finally,the tax design of the consumption tax system that promotes nutrition and health.In response to the above questions,this article will be divided into six chapters for detailed discussion,as follows:The first chapter is the introduction.Firstly,based on the domestic background and international background of the current health crisis,the author points out the problems to be studied in this paper and points out the significance of this study.Secondly,a literature review,mainly from both foreign and domestic perspectives.The existing research on the consumption tax system for promoting nutrition and health is sorted out.Next,the logical structure and research content framework of the article are arranged.Finally,the research methods of the article are summarized,and the main innovations and shortcomings of the article are explained.The second chapter is the theoretical basis of this paper,which is carried out from the perspectives of theory and practice.Firstly,the paper expounds the mechanism of taxation affecting nutrient intake and health.Secondly,it uses the classic theory of economics to explain the theoretical basis of the consumption tax system that promotes nutrition and health.Again,using the analytical tools of game theory,the model is explained by the Hotelling model.Studies have shown that moderate taxation can increase social welfare,thus indicating that the reform of the consumption tax system that promotes nutrition and health is a welfare-improved tax reform that can not only improve social welfare but also can improve the government’s income;finally,from the perspective of practice,it analyzes the reform practice and system design of the countries that have already introduced the consumption tax system to promote nutrition and health,aiming to provide useful experience and enlightenment for China’s future consumption tax system reform.The third chapter is the effectiveness of the taxation of the consumption tax system for nutrition and health based on multinational panel data.The country that promotes the consumption tax system for nutrition and health is the experimental group,and the countries that have not yet promoted the consumption tax system for nutrition and health are compared.Evaluating the health impact of the consumption tax system that promotes nutrition and health,and finding that the consumption tax system that promotes nutrition and health is conducive to reducing obesity and improving health,the consumption tax system that promotes nutrition and health is effective.The fourth chapter is the health effect simulation by using the China Health and Nutrition Survey data.Firstly,based on the traditional demand model,short-sight addiction model and rational addiction model to calculate the long-term price elasticity,short-term price elasticity and sub-sample price elasticity of Chinese sugary beverage consumption.The study found that the short-term price elasticity of Chinese sugarsweetened beverages was-0.005 and long-term price elasticity is-0.006.Secondly,based on the Grossman health demand model,the paper studies the health effects of sugar-containing beverages.The study find that price has a significant negative impact on obesity and high blood pressure.Finally,based on the results of the above model,we simulate the impact of China’s consumption tax system to promote nutrition and health on health and fiscal revenue.The study found that China’s consumption tax system to promote nutrition and health is a win-win choice for both resident health and fiscal revenue.The fifth chapter is tax design.Based on an online random experiment to study the health effects of the system design of the consumption tax system that promotes nutrition and health.The experimental design and research are carried out from the perspectives of tax base,tax rate,tax salience and tax income usage.Under the tax rate of ad valorem tax,the tax rate of 50%,the tax revenue special funds,and the tax system with strong taxation design,the policy effect of promoting the nutrition and health consumption tax system is the strongest,and the effect on health is most obvious.The sixth chapter is the conclusions and policy recommendations of this paper,summarizing the full text and proposing corresponding policy recommendations and future research directions.The contributions and innovations of this paper are reflected in the following aspects: Firstly,base on the use of cross-country panel data,the introduction of the consumption tax system for promoting nutrition and health in all countries of the world as a quasi-natural experiment to study the policy effectiveness of the consumption tax system that promotes nutrition and health,providing a new perspective for academic research in this field.Secondly,calculating the price elasticity of sugary beverages in China and analyzing the causal effects between the consumption of sugary beverages in China and obesity and on this basis,carrying out tax simulations.China’s evidence in the field of consumption tax system to promote nutrition and health has been added.China is the second largest economy in the world.At present,China’s empirical evidence in relevant fields is lacking.The research in this paper can promote the promotion of nutrition and health consumption tax system policy in development.Thirdly,the use of random intervention experiments in China to study the impact of the consumption tax system of promoting nutrition and health is also another innovation.Through theoretical and empirical analysis,this paper further explains the role of the consumption tax system that promotes nutrition and health on resident health,and provides strong academic support for the policy formulation.Through theoretical research,it can provide more systematic theoretical guidance for the further improvement of the policy and better promote the practice of China’s consumption tax system.The consumption tax system to promote nutrition and health is an important field.Due to data availability,most of the current research is based on data from developed countries such as the United Kingdom,the United States,and France,as well as data from developing countries such as India and Brazil.In terms of whether these research conclusions are universal,the research lacks corresponding policy guidance and practical significance for China.Therefore,this study has important research significance.The research in this paper is not only conducive to the improvement of China’s taxation system,but also benefit to China’s participation in global tax governance.