Sugar, Rum and Tobacco: Taxes and Public Health in New Zealand: 2017

Description

Can a sugar tax improve public health? Even if it can, is it the right thing to do? One of New Zealand's foremost health scientists, Mike Berridge, teams up with tax expert Lisa Marriott to explore the issue.This BWB Text explains the relationship between sugar and ill-health, and explores how taxes can reduce people's sugar intake. It draws on research and case studies from around the world, including Denmark, Mexico and the Pacific. With New Zealand now the third most obese nation in the OECD, Berridge and Marriott's discussion is a timely addition to a contentious debate.

Mike Berridge is a Distinguished Research Fellow and Senior Scientist at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, Wellington, New Zealand.Lisa Marriott is an Associate Professor of Taxation at Victoria University of Wellington's School of Accounting and Commercial Law. Lisa's research interests include social justice and inequality, and the behavioural impacts of taxation. Lisa has publications in a range of refereed journals and is the author of The Politics of Retirement Savings Taxation: A Trans-Tasman Perspective. Her work is interdisciplinary covering disciplines including sociology, political science and public policy.In 2013, Lisa was awarded a Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Grant to investigate the different treatments of tax evasion and welfare fraud in the New Zealand justice system. Lisa has worked in the private sector in the United Kingdom and in the public sector in New Zealand. For the past ten years, Lisa has worked in academia.