Pricing Strategies

RWJF Priority: Use pricing strategies—both incentives and disincentives—to promote the purchase of healthier foods

Prices can significantly affect family food choices and are emerging as an important strategy in the movement to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic. For example, when healthy foods like fruits and vegetables are more affordable, children are less likely to gain excess weight. And leading health authorities, including the Institute of Medicine, recommend new policies to reduce overconsumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, which are one of the top sources of calories in the American diet.

The resources below, from RWJF grantees and partners, explore the possible health and economic impacts of using pricing strategies to promote consumption of healthy foods and beverages and discourage consumption of unhealthy products.

Childhood Obesity Policy Priorities

Featured

A Penny-Per-Ounce Tax on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Could Have Big Impact

Such a tax could prevent unnecessary, potentially life-threatening conditions—and help avoid billions of dollars in medical costs over a decade—according to a recent study.

Read the study

From the Food Trust

Harnessing the Power of Supermarkets to Help Reverse Childhood Obesity

A report from The Food Trust examines in-store promotions and pricing strategies that may encourage people to buy healthier foods and beverages.

Read the report

From Bridging the Gap

Taxes on Soda and Snack Foods

Bridging the Gap (BTG) examines how changes in price affect consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. BTG also has the latest research about state-level taxes on snacks and sugar-sweetened beverages.

Learn more

More Research and Resources on Pricing Strategies

You are now viewing 1 - 11 of 32 results

Sort results by:

Refine Your Results

By Topic

featured

Childhood Obesity Program Area

RWJF is committed to tackling one of the most urgent threats to the health of our children and families—childhood obesity. Our goal is to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015.

Fruit and Vegetable Availability and Selection

October 1, 2012 | Journal Article

Expansion of WIC foods was associated with small positive externalities on the food environment.

Building Infrastructure to Document the U.S. Food Stream

February 1, 2013 | Journal Article

This commentary praises the detailed work of the article “Food Companies’ Calorie-Reduction Pledges to Improve U.S. Diet," which describes the independent evaluation of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF) pledge to remove 1.5 trillion calories a year from the marketplace by the end of 2015.

Are Americans Ready to Solve the Weight of the Nation?

August 2, 2012 | Journal Article

Obesity prevention social marketing is needed, but care should be taken not to stigmatize obese people and risk increased feelings of shame felt particularly by obese children.

Food Taxes: What Type of Evidence is Available to Inform Policy Development?

March 1, 2012 | Journal Article

This international literature review looks at the kinds of evidence that is available to inform policy-makers on food taxes and health.

Food Expenditures and Food Purchasing Among Low-Income, Urban, African-American Youth

June 1, 2011 | Journal Article

A study examining the food-buying behavior of lower-income African-American youth found that youth make frequent and unhealthy food purchases.

An Analysis of Public Health Policy and Legal Issues Relevant to Mobile Food Vending

November 1, 2010 | Journal Article

Mobile food vendors can deliver nutritious food options, in particular fresh produce, to communities that are suffering high obesity rates.

The Proof is in the Pudding

June 1, 2011 | Journal Article

The Fletcher research team agrees with Chaloupka and colleagues on a number of issues regarding sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) policy. For one, taxation is a way to reduce SSB consumption providing youth are the primary target.

Policy Solutions to the 'Grocery Gap'

March 1, 2010 | Journal Article

In this article, the authors present the Food Trust's five-step framework for increasing access to fresh, healthy food in various locales.

Physical, Consumer, and Social Aspects of Measuring the Food Environment Among Diverse Low-Income Populations

April 1, 2009 | Journal Article

This article examines the food environment in low-income settings ranging from urban to very remote. It identifies challenges of measuring food environments across these settings and lays out solutions to assess food environments in a robust and practical manner.

Work Group I

April 1, 2009 | Journal Article

This article presents the conclusions of a work group charged with improving instrumentation to assess food and activity environments. The paper identifies key challenges and makes recommendations to improve instrumentation in this field.