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The prevalence of obesity has increased significantly worldwide, including in low- and middle-income countries. In Ecuador, a middle-income country, the government has implemented two policies to improve the quality of its population's diet: (1) a traffic-light (TL) nutritional labeling requirement for processed foods and (2) a special tax scheme for drinks with a high sugar content (HSC). This study examines changes in carbonated soft drink (CSD) sugar formulation and its associated impacts on sugar consumption after the implementation of these two policies. Sugar content in soft drinks was obtained from the National Agency for Health Regulation, Control, and Surveillance (ARCSA) and directly from the labels of carbonated soft drinks sold in the country. CSD monthly purchase data from January 2013 to December 2019 were obtained from the Kantar World Panel (Ecuador). Mixed reactions followed the introduction of the TL in the sugar content reformulation of CSD. In contrast, the implementation of the HSC tax scheme was followed by extensive efforts to reformulate CSD as all brands studied decreased their sugar content. We also found evidence that CSD consumption reduced significantly after the HSC tax scheme was imposed. Overall, sugar consumption linked to CSD decreased after the implementation of these two policies. Still, most of this decrease is related to reformulation activities observed after the HSC tax scheme was implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws inference on the effect of changes in indirect taxation on household spending on cinema and performing arts using data from the Spanish household expenditure survey. As of September 2012, value-added tax (VAT) on cinema and performing arts in Spain was raised 13 percent points, with the exception of the Canary Islands which are not part of the Spanish VAT territory. Indirect taxation levied on cinema and performing arts through the General Indirect Tax of Canary Islands (Impuesto General Indirecto de Canarias, IGIC) had changed in July 2012 by only 2 percent points. Such an uneven raise in the tax rates is the source of exogenous variation used for identification in this paper. As the sample of treated households (exposed to the VAT rise) is much larger than the sample of untreated households (exposed to the IGIC rise), we use causal inference methods to estimate the average treatment effect of the VAT rise on the untreated households. We find that the average household expenditure on cinema and performing arts of the untreated households would not have changed significantly, had untreated households been exposed to the VAT rise. However, this average treatment effect would not have been homogeneous, as we identify an average treatment effect conditional on participation of 52.37 euros. Thus, the tax rise would have increased the annual expenditure of those households that spend on cinema and performing arts regularly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the extent to which a fiscal stimulus involving durable goods induces financial distress and causes debt burden. Using account-level loan data to study the impact of Thailand's first-car-buyer tax rebate scheme at both individual and postcode levels, we find that the program led to higher loan delinquency and crowded out other loan originations, which are symptoms implied by excessive debt burden. The adverse impacts were more pronounced for passenger car buyers than for truck buyers and there were local negative spillovers to non-participants. Our findings raise questions about the merit of promoting economic growth by inducing debt-fueled spending and suggest that the design of durable goods stimulus policy should focus more on productive business durables than on consumer durables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Este artículo analiza la demanda de vivienda en México a través del gasto en servi- cios de vivienda y el costo de uso del capital residencial de cada hogar representati- vo por percentil de ingreso. La hipótesis de ingreso permanente se considera como función de las características sociodemográficas y el grado de educación del jefe del hogar. Asimismo, se obtienen las elasticidades de ingreso, riqueza, edad del jefe de familia, tamaño del hogar y número de empleados, así como la semielasticidad del costo de uso de capital residencial. El gasto en vivienda es inelástico, aunque es más sensible al ingreso corriente que al permanente. También demostramos que existe una estructura regresiva en este mercado y se realiza un análisis de sensibilidad con el fin de medir el impacto en el gasto de vivienda ante ciertas variaciones del costo de uso residencial de largo plazo.

Using a novel data set for the U.S. states, this paper examines whether household debt and the protracted debt deleveraging help explain the dismal performance of U.S. consumption since 2007 in the aftermath of the housing bubble. By separating the concepts of deleveraging and debt overhang-a flow and a stock effect-we find that excessive indebtedness exerted a meaningful drag on consumption over and beyond wealth and income effects. The overall effect, however, is modest--around one sixth of the slowdown in consumption between 2000-06 and 2007-12-and mostly driven by states with particularly large imbalances in their household sector. This might be indicative of non-linearities, whereby indebtedness begins to bite only when misalignments from sustainable debt dynamics become excessive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy labels are a key element of energy efficiency policies. They provide information on appliances' energy consumption and aim at increasing consumers' attention to this characteristic. A well-known example is the EU Energy Label, which is required by law to be displayed on most energy-using durables in the EU as well as in Switzerland. In cooperation with a large online retailer in Switzerland we assess the impact of the EU Energy Label and of a newly designed monetary lifetime-oriented energy label in the field. We analyze private purchases of household appliances, especially freezers, vacuum cleaners and tumble dryers. We find that the display of any of the two energy labels increases the sales proportion of energy-efficient appliances compared to the absence of any energy label. At the same time, we observe a volume-effect for freezers: The average size of purchased freezers is larger when any of the two energy labels is displayed compared to the absence of any energy label. The influence of the two different energy labels is similar except for vacuum cleaners, for which monetary information might have an adverse effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) administers the Better Energy Homes scheme to provide a financial incentive for home owners to engage in energy efficiency retrofits. This study analyses data from the scheme and Building Energy Rating data for participants to the scheme to examine the value for money achieved by households. In addition, this research identifies which retrofit combinations provide greatest value for money, in terms of energy efficiency gains, for the grant provider. We utilize an error-in-variables approach to model the variation in benefits accruing to households of varying characteristics. We find that household and grant provider surplus can be maximized in the short term by retrofitting less energy efficient and larger homes, timber or steel frame homes and houses rather and apartments. The types of retrofits leading to the greatest surplus for both household and grant provider include cavity wall insulation paired with either a boiler with heating controls or heating controls only retrofit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the impact of targeted unconditional cash transfers on the spouses' demand for public goods, labor supplies and sharing of resources. We estimate a collective labor supply model with distributional factors which is extended to include preferences over marketable public goods (including child goods). In this way, unlike previous research, we consider the impact of such transfers on the intrahousehold allocation of resources and distinguish between the labeling and recipient effects. We exploit the UK experience and find evidence in favor of the collective model with separable preferences over labor supplies and public goods. This finding implies a recipient effect and not a labeling effect of child benefits. Given the household's unearned income, the bigger the wife's bargaining power, the more the resources allocated to public goods (including child goods) and the wife's private consumption. The results can be useful in the design of family policy which aims to improve the relative welfare of children within the family and alleviate any intrahousehold consumption inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global shift towards diets high in sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and energy dense ultra-processed foods is linked to higher prevalence of obesity, diabetes and most other non-communicable diseases (NCDs), causing significant costs to societies and individuals. Chile has the highest SSB consumption in the world, very high junk food intake and very rapid increases in these poor components of the diet plus obesity prevalence. This study’s purpose is to compare the effect of different tax policies for SSBs and ultra-processed foods on nutrient availability, utilizing price-elasticities, which are estimated from a Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System model, using the 2011–2012 Income and Expenditure survey from Chile. We take into account the high proportion of households not purchasing various food and beverage groups (censored nature of data) and endogeneity on total expenditures. The food groups considered were: sweets and desserts; salty snacks and chips; meat products and fats; fruits, vegetables and seafood; grain-based staples; ready-to-drink SSB; SSB from concentrate; plain water, coffee and tea; and milk, which together represent 90% of food expenditures. The simulated taxes were: (1) 18% price tax on all foods and beverages exceeding thresholds on sodium, saturated fat, and added sugar and for which marketing is restricted (based on a Chilean law, effective June 16, 2016); (2) 40% tax on SSBs (22% above the current tax level); and (3) a 1 Chilean peso (0.2 US cents) per gram of sugar tax on products with added sugar. Unhealthy beverages and foods are price-elastic (−1.95 for salty snacks and chips, −1.30 for ready-to-drink SSBs, and −1.27 for SSBs from concentrate), meaning that the change in consumption is proportionally larger with respect to a change in price. Results are robust to different model specification, and consistent among different socioeconomic sub-populations. Overall, the tax on foods and beverages high in fat, salt and sugar is associated with the largest reduction in household purchases of sodium, added sugar, saturated fat and calorie purchases. Chile is unique in currently having instituted a small current SSB tax as well as marketing controls and front-of-package labelling of unhealthy foods and beverages. The design of a more comprehensive tax to enhance the overall effect of these policies on healthier diets is a next critical step. This study shows that a tax on the same foods and beverages already delineated as unhealthy by the marketing controls and front-of-pack labelling should promote a healthier diet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) solicit donations from individuals and in turn offer goods and services whose quality cannot be (easily) ascertained by the donors. This creates incentives for 'bad' NPOs to enter the market and free ride on donor trust. This paper presents a model in which the media helps to reduce the problem of asymmetric information in the market for NPOs. This occurs through two channels. On the one hand, the media can, with some probability, uncover a 'bad' organization if it has entered the market. On the other hand, the media reduces the incentives for bad types to enter the market in the first place. Overall, the media enhances the trust of the donors and increases the level of donations and the amount of public good produced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anti-smoking policies can in theory make smokers better off, by helping smokers with time-inconsistent preferences commit to giving up or reducing the amount they smoke. We use almost 20 years of British individual-level panel data to explore the impact on self-reported psychological well-being of two policy interventions: large increases in tobacco excise taxes and bans on smoking in public places. We use a difference-in-differences approach to compare the effects on well-being for likely smokers and non-smokers. We find robust evidence that increases in tobacco taxes raise the relative well-being of likely smokers. Exploiting regional variation in the timing of the smoking ban across Britain, we find no evidence that it raised smoker well-being. Our findings give some support to the view that tobacco taxes are at least partly justifiable because of the benefits they have for smokers themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the relationship between financial literacy and retirement planning in Chile, a country with mandatory defined contribution pension plans at the core of its retirement policy. Using a novel dataset, we find that very few Chileans are planning for their retirement and that the levels of financial literacy are remarkably low with only 47% of the population understand compound interest and only 18% understand the concept of inflation. We also find a positive and significant relationship between financial literacy and retirement planning suggesting that investments in financial education could have a substantial impact on the way people think about retirement and therefore on their ability to reach retirement with adequate resources. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Electrification will reduce environmental impacts and greenhouse gas emissions from transport. Electric propulsion is energy efficient, and does not cause local pollution. In 2013 the new vehicle market share of electric vehicles (EVs) was 5.8%. and 80% were owned by private consumers. This paper explores some possible explanations to the Norwegian development by describing the electromobility story, the incentives given and the attitudes among users. A long lasting interaction between private enterprises, public authorities and non-government organizations combined with a taxation system that gives the authorities opportunity to influence vehicle purchase, and to compensate for marketing challenges related to price, have supported the Norwegian diffusion of electromobility. In addition a high share of multi-vehicle households and a publicly supported expansion of charging stations have made range challenges manageable. The Norwegian market is expected to continue to grow as more models are coming into the market and given the governmental decision to extend the economic incentives until the end of 2017. Rapid development of the technology and policies makes firm conclusions for other countries challenging to make. Further research should include several countries and broader cost/benefit and life-cycle analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes two different approaches to assess the sustainability of household debt in Korea. First, we identify marginal households whose debts are excessive and whose financial soundness is weak, and examine how much these household groups would grow should external shocks occur. This sensitivity analysis shows that the low-income brackets are highly exposed to rollover and default risks, and that a decline in housing prices is an important factor affecting the vulnerability of household debt. Furthermore, we employ a debt dynamics equation and a primary savings reaction function in order to derive the debt limit for each income quintile, and find that the sustainable debt ratio for each income quintile differs in line with the interest rate burden of the household sector, income fluctuations and savings capability. According to the results of this analysis, the first quintile at the bottom income level records debt ratios close to their debt limit, calling for urgent debt restructuring for this income class. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper provides an impact evaluation analysis of the 2009 Australian Household Stimulus Package, which was composed by three main cash payments: the Back to School Bonus, the Single Income Family Bonus and the Tax Bonus for Working Australians. Using panel data from the 2008 and 2009 HILDA surveys, the results show that these cash payments reduced the risk of poverty and stimulated consumption expenditure. Nonetheless, only the Back to School Bonus and the Single Income Family Bonus were really important in achieving these goals, while the Tax Bonus for Working Australians did not contribute to stimulate consumption and failed to reduce the risk of poverty. Thus, the analysis confirms the crucial role of governments to protect the most vulnerable groups avoiding a dramatic deterioration of social outcomes and favoring a fast economic recovery when interventions are timely and well-targeted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of charitable lotteries on charitable donations depends on the motives of charitable donations, and is thus more an empirical question. Utilizing the propensity score matching method to overcome sample selection bias, this study estimates the effect of lotto outlays on direct charitable donations based on Taiwan's experience of introducing a lottery in 2002. We find that people's lottery spending neither crowds out nor crowds in charitable donations after the control group for lottery players is matched by propensity scores. The evidence thus suggests that people are more concerned about how they make their donations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses three alternative assumptions concerning household preferences (altruism, self-interest, and a desire for dynasty building) and shows that these assumptions have very different implications for bequest motives and bequest division. After reviewing some of the literature on actual bequests, bequest motives, and bequest division, the paper presents data on the strength of bequest motives, stated bequest motives, and bequest division plans from a new international survey conducted in China, India, Japan, and the United States. It finds striking inter-country differences in bequest plans, with the bequest plans of Americans and Indians appearing to be much more consistent with altruistic preferences than those of the Japanese and Chinese and the bequest plans of the Japanese and Chinese appearing to be much more consistent with selfish preferences than those of Americans and Indians. These findings have important implications for the efficacy and desirability of stimulative fiscal policies, public pensions, and inheritance taxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Norway imposes some of the highest tax rates on alcoholic beverages and tobacco in the world, making, e.g., cross-border shopping an attractive activity for Norwegians. In light of this fact, we pose the question: Could we increase the total tax revenue from indirect taxes by decreasing tax rates on, e.g., spirits in Norway? When using an empirically based consumer model including cross-border shopping, tax-free shopping, and smuggling, we do find revenue curves implying total tax revenue maximizing tax rates. But we also find that these tax rates are always higher than the observed tax rates, i.e., suggesting that the answer to our question is no. In addition, we compare our results to a closed economy setting without cross-border shopping, etc. We find that the existence of cross-border shopping, etc. affects the shape of the revenue curves somewhat, although not dramatically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper exploits a recent reform of private pension schemes in Italy to identify the impact on household saving of tax-favored retirement saving plans. The reform was part of the restructuring of the social security system and was aimed at rising private long-term saving by making pension funds more attractive and convenient. We control for unobserved saver heterogeneity and a central focus is on substitution across saving instruments. We find that the pension fund legislation had a strong effect on the allocation of saving and triggered substantial substitution of non-tax-favored non-retirement wealth for tax-favored pension funds. In contrast, we find that it had little, if any effect on household saving flows. Our findings also suggest that the provision of ‘closed’ pension funds might significantly affect the decision to invest in private retirement schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since 2002, the German government has been attempting to increase private old-age provisions by introducing incentives such as supplementary subsidies and tax credits. Since then, the so-called ‘Riester pension’ has grown in popularity. Apart from subsidized pension plans, unsubsidized private pension insurances have – already in the past – been a very important instrument among old-age provision schemes. With data of the German SAVE study for the years 2005–2009, we analyze whether the decision for a ‘Riester pension’ is independent of the decision for unsubsidized private pension insurance using methods for simultaneous equations. Our estimates indicate that decisions on ‘Riester’ and private pensions are not independent and the proposed random parameters bivariate probit model results in efficiency gains compared to separate probit estimations. Regarding governmental subsidies, we find positive incentive effects of child subsidies, whereas low income earners are not seen to increase their old-age provisions. Further, there is strong evidence for a ‘crowding-in’ among alternative assets, i.e., that individuals holding various assets make additional investments in ‘Riester pensions’ or private pension insurances. Finally, when subsidies are given, these subsidies are a clearly stronger saving motive than the aim to make provisions for old age, a result confirmed by the additional fixed-effects estimations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controlling for differences in taxes and transportation costs, the Nordic Competition Authorities claims, in a report from 2005, that food prices are 11% higher in Sweden compared to the EU-15 countries. One explanation for this put forward in the report is the limited competition on this market which suggests there to be a potential for lower food prices. This paper focuses on distributional effects of a price decrease on food. Based on a simple model of household utility, the households demand for food is derived and estimated. Price and income elasticities for different income groups are then calculated based on these parameter estimates. Our results suggest that food is a normal good with an average income elasticity of approximately 0.18 and a price elasticity of 0.45. In addition, and of importance from a policy perspective, the results indicate the income elasticity to differ across income groups while price elasticities are constant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The level of financial literacy is not high in Japan. Although a majority of respondents were able to correctly answer a simple question about interest rates, more than half were not able to correctly answer a question about risk diversification. Many respondents stated they did not know the answer to the financial literacy questions, which might indicate that Japanese are very cautious and only answer when confident in their response. Women, the young, and those with lower incomes and lower educational attainment have the lowest levels of financial literacy, and financial literacy increases the probability of having a retirement savings plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses micro data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey to estimate the marginal propensity to consume (MPC). Estimates are made by examining two types of policy changes – to income tax rates and lump-sum transfers – which help to identify the effect of shocks to income on consumption. Using a fixed effects model the point estimate of MPC out of the tax cuts is around 1.0 and out of the Baby Bonus is at least 0.1. The paper also explores differences in the MPC across households according to measures of liquidity constraints and unemployment risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we provide empirical evidence of the relationship between government purchases and private expenditure by adopting a microeconomic approach. Using UK quarterly data, a long-run demand system conditioned to the public sector is obtained by specifying a vector error correction model in which government consumption is assumed as an exogenous I(1) forcing variable. Our findings reject the hypothesis of separability of individual preferences between public and private expenditures, with simultaneous crowding-out/in effects. Moreover, crowding-out effects of government consumption on private spending are found to be larger for those goods and services that produce similar utility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Japanese tax system offers an opportunity to investigate the labor supply response of married women to the income tax and the intrahousehold resource allocation mechanism, since the deductible amount from the husband’s income decreases as the wife’s earnings increase. Using cross-section data, I structurally estimate the labor supply of married women under the piece-wise linear budget constraint created by the Japanese tax and social security system. I find that the wife’s labor supply response to her husband’s decreasing deduction tends to be greater than the response to her own income tax. This suggests that not only the unitary model is rejected but also that female labor is allocated inefficiently within a family. Finally, this study shows that the choice of household model affects the predicted effect of policy reform and that the currently proposed reforms will have less of an effect on the labor supply of married women than previous studies claim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proposals for tax cuts on cultural goods represent an ongoing debate in cultural policy. The main aim of this paper is to shed some light on this debate using microsimulation tools. First, we have estimated an Almost Ideal Demand System for 19 different groups of goods, including cultural goods. Expenditure and price elasticities have been obtained from this model. Using this information, three alternative cuts in the VAT rate on cultural goods have been microsimulated and evaluated in terms of revenue and welfare. These types of fiscal reforms will lead to welfare and efficiency gains that can be described as regressive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]