Tax Reform Pros & Cons: A Brief Look from a Public Health Perspective

Tuesday, February 9th, 2016 | Kate Sloane | No Comments

Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Caroline Shaw, Dr Nhung Nghiem, Prof Tony Blakely, A/Prof Ralph Chapman

Tax policies have major impacts on society and designing such policies is complex. But if death and disease, tobacco taxthe perspective is around gaining health and saving costs for the public health system, then certain tax reforms may be favoured more than others. In this blog we take a brief look at what potential there is for revising the NZ tax system from a public health perspective.

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Taxing sugary drinks: Empirical findings out of Mexico

Thursday, February 4th, 2016 | Kate Sloane | 1 Comment

Dr Andrea McDonald, Dr Cristina Cleghorn, Prof Nick Wilson, Prof Tony Blakely

Soft drinks blog picLast month the British Medical Journal published a study on the highly anticipated purchasing data examining the impact of taxing sugar sweetened beverages (SSB) in Mexico (1). This study reported that the 10% tax on SSBs was associated with an overall 12% reduction in purchases and a 4% increase in purchases of untaxed beverages one year after implementation. In this blog we examine this latest study, how it fits in with existing evidence, and how these results might apply to improving the control of obesity and improving child oral health in New Zealand.

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