Costs of healthy and unhealthy food in Argentina: 2002-2015

Valentina Viego, Karina Tempor

Abstract

Food prices may be responsible for the uprising trend in obesity figures, especially in low and medium income countries. We construct price indexes of healthy and unhealthy food baskets in Argentina during the period 2002-2015. Results show that although the relative price of healthy food items have decreased since 2006, the gap is still high, near 80%. We discuss the potential impact of fiscal stimulus (e.g. taxation or subsidies) on eating habits.

Relevant Publications in Applied Food Science Journal