Document Type
Article
Abstract
Obesity is a rising problem in America and is blamed for externalities such as increasing health care costs. Some have proposed taxes on “unhealthy” foods so as to internalize the externalities and to generate revenue to subsidize “healthy” foods. I examine several such proposals and conclude that taxes based on perceived externalities from the obese are not the best options. Other solutions such as increasing awareness and nutritional programs would be better.
Publication Date
Spring 2010
Journal Title
Major Themes in Economics
Volume
12
Issue
1
First Page
47
Last Page
69
Copyright
©2010 by Major Themes in Economics
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Bakker, Carl
(2010)
"Can the ‘Fat Tax’ Carry its Weight?,"
Major Themes in Economics, 12, 47-69.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/mtie/vol12/iss1/5