Getting a healthy start: The effectiveness of targeted benefits for improving dietary choices

Rachel Griffith, Stephanie von Hinke*, Sarah Smith

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)
624 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

There is growing policy interest in encouraging better dietary choices. We study a nationally-implemented policy – the UK Healthy Start scheme – that introduced vouchers for fruit, vegetables and milk. We show that the policy has increased spending on fruit and vegetables and has been more effective than an equivalent-value cash benefit. We also show that the policy improved the nutrient composition of households' shopping baskets, with no offsetting changes in spending on other foodstuffs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)176-187
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of Health Economics
Volume58
Early online date24 Feb 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2018

Structured keywords

  • ECON Applied Economics
  • ECON CEPS Health

Keywords

  • Dietary choices
  • Targeted benefits
  • Healthy Start scheme

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