Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39799472›Full record

ArticleHealth economics2025

Fat vs. Sugar: The Case for a Saturated Fat Tax in Italy.

Valeria di Cosmo, Silvia Tiezzi

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Health economics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Valeria di CosmoDepartment of Economics and Statistics "Cognetti de Martiis", University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
Silvia TiezziDepartment of Economics and Statistics, University of Siena, Siena, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-5998-7992

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

When judging the distributional impact of unhealthy food taxes, what matters is not just how much low income people would pay but how much the such taxes would benefit or harm them overall. In this paper, we assess the consumer welfare impact of a fat tax net of its expected benefits computed as savings from weight loss. Using Italian data, we estimate a censored Exact Affine Stone Index (EASI) incomplete demand system for food groups, simulating changes in purchases, calorie intake, consumer welfare, and the monetary value of short-run health benefits. While the Italian government has proposed a sugar tax, we show that there is no significant excess consumption of added sugars among Italian adults. Instead, excessive fat consumption is more prevalent, making a fat tax a more compelling and effective solution to address diet-related health risks. Our results suggest costs from fat taxation are larger than benefits at all income levels. As a fraction of income, the net impact would be slightly regressively distributed.

Indexed as

Dietary FatsDietary SugarsTaxesAdultEnergy IntakeFemaleHumansItalyMaleMiddle AgedDietary FatsDietary Sugarsdemand elasticitiesexact affine stone index demand systemhealth benefitsunhealthy food taxeswelfare costs

Identifiers

PMID39799472
PMCPMC11890089

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.