Fat Taxes and Other Interventions Won’t Cure Obesity

The paper argues that fat taxes would be uneconomic, ineffective, discriminate racially, encourage rent‐seeking behaviour and result in various adverse unintended consequences. Some key insights from the paper:

• “[…] The rise in obesity prevalence and the associated increase in obesity related health costs increase incentives for private industry to find ways to reduce obesity prevalence. Private industry has, indeed, responded to the obesity challenge by providing a variety of means to reduce weight and increase physical fitness. The response of private enterprise to the obesity epidemic is more likely to move economies to increased welfare outcomes than is government intervention”.

You can find the whole paper here.