Linear Symmetric “Fat Taxes”: Evidence from Brazil

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

According to the World Health Organization, the obesity epidemic is a threat. Brazil is not an exception, and the objective of this article is to analyze the effects of a “fat tax” there. For this purpose, the estimation of a demand system was carried out and policy simulations were performed using the estimated parameters. The simulation results indicate that to be successful, this “fat tax” must be combined with a subsidy on healthy food. Another contribution was the analysis of a linear symmetric revenue‐neutral tax schedule with more pronounced changes to micronutrient intake at no net cost to the government.