Punktskatt på sötade drycker i Sverige : En kostnads-nyttoanalys

Sammanfattning: Unhealthy eating habits are one of the main causes of deteriorating health and premature death among Sweden’s population. Foods containing added sugars are common today and they rarely contain the nutrients that are essential for our bodies to stay healthy. Overconsuming sugar can lead to several diseases, including obesity and caries. Obesity in turn increases the risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases, cancer, stroke, and diabetes type 2. The health effects of sugar are costly to society and a sugar tax on sugar-sweetened beverages is a possible financial instrument to improve public health and at the same time reduce healthcare costs. The cost savings and tax revenue can then be used to finance further implementations of strategies to improve the public health of the citizens of Sweden. The purpose of this essay is to investigate whether it is socio-economically viable to introduce an excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages in Sweden. The drinks that would be affected by the tax are sodas, juices, energy drinks, sport drinks and ciders. A cost-benefit analysis is the economic method that will be used in this essay to investigate the issue. The possible costs and benefits from the implementation of a tax are identified and valued in monetary terms. In addition to this, a sensitivity analysis is carried out to test how sensitive the project is to differences in estimated costs and benefits. The calculations of costs and benefits are based on secondary data and statistics from previous studies as well as reports and statistics from Swedish authorities. The results of this essay show that the benefits of a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages had exceeded the costs, which is also showed by the cost-benefit ratio which is 1,47 and thus exceeds 1. The sensitivity analysis shows that the results are stable and credible since alternative values of costs and benefits also would lead to cost-benefit ratios exceeding 1. Based on the results, a recommendation is made to introduce an excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages in Sweden, since the introduction is estimated to be socio-economically viable.