Fat tax, obesity, and government regulation / 中国卫生政策研究

ABSTRACT

Due to the fast pace of modern life, sedentary lifestyle and caloric-dense, high-fat diets have caused the obesity epidemic. Obesity epidemic has not only caused serious damage to the health of consumers, but also there exists strong externalities. Therefore, the government regulation needed to reverse the problem of obesity has become the must-have measures. However, the complexity and universality of the growing problem of obesity cause the gov-ernment regulationfor the obesity epidemic fall into the dilemma of interfering the consumers' freedom of choice and improving consumer welfare. By sorting out the epidemic of obesity, this paper takes into account the long-term health risks caused by the obesity epidemic, in order to discuss the feasibility of implementing government fat tax reg-ulation, and analyze the expected effects that fat tax policy may make on food market the effect.