Taxing Sweets: Sweetener Input Tax or FinalConsumption Tax?

In order to reduce obesity and associated costs, policymakers are considering variouspolicies, including taxes, to change consumers’ high-calorie consumption habits. We investigatetwo tax policies aimed at reducing added sweetener consumption. Both a consumption tax onsweet goods and a sweetener input tax can reach the same policy target of reducing addedsweetener consumption. Both tax instruments are regressive, but the associated surplus losses arelimited. The tax on sweetener inputs targets sweeteners directly and causes about five times lesssurplus loss than the final consumption tax. Previous analyses have overlooked this importantpoint.[...]