With the economic development of various countries and the deepening of population aging, health plays an increasingly important role in the macro-economy. How to meet the growing health needs as well as promote the economy has captured the attention of the world. Therefore, whether health investment can promote economic growth is an important theoretical and practical issue. An extended Mankiw–Romer–Weil model (MRW) with human health capital and population aging is employed to examine the impact on economic growth from population aging and health investment. On the basis of the theoretical model, this paper uses the LSDV and TSLS methods to carry out an empirical study based on cross-country panel data during the period 2000–2016. The empirical results show that health investment plays a significant role in promoting economic growth, and there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between population aging and economic growth. The impacts on economic growth from health investment and population aging can weaken each other. In addition, this paper also finds that health investment structure and the proportion of government health investment to total government spending can affect economic growth.

China is world’s largest market of machine-made cigarettes. In 2015, more than 315 million or around 26.9% of the adult population in China were smokers—50.6% among men and 2.2% among women. Growing affordability of cigarettes led to increased cigarette consumption in China to the detriment of public health. This study investigated whether the level and growth in cigarette affordability in China was equally shared by smokers from all demographic and socio-economic statuses (SES) and across all price tiers of cigarette brands. The data came from the urban smoker sample (≥18 years) of the International Tobacco Control China Surveys conducted in five waves over 2006–2015. Cigarette affordability was measured by Relative Income Price—percentage of per capita household income needed to purchase 100 cigarette packs of the last purchased brand. Overall and group-specific trends in affordability by age, gender, SES (e.g., income, education, and employment status), and price tiers were analyzed using generalized estimating equations method. Cigarette affordability was higher among older, female, and higher-SES smokers, and for cheaper brands. It increased overall and across all groups over time. The increase was significantly larger among younger and lower-SES smokers, a trend that poses an added challenge to tobacco control and health equity. To reduce cigarette affordability and consumption among these vulnerable groups, a uniform specific excise system should be introduced in place of the existing tiered ad valorem excise. The specific excise should be periodically adjusted to inflation and per capita income growth observed among younger and lower-SES people, who can potentially experience faster income growth than the national average. The excise tax policy can also be complimented with minimum price regulations and restrictions on price promotions.

China is in the midst of an epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which has increasingly accounted for a growing share of disease burden, due in part to China’s ongoing rapid socioeconomic changes and population aging. Smoking, the second leading health risk factors associated with NCDs in China, disproportionately affects the old population more than their younger counterparts. Using survey data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), this study evaluated the impact of changes in cigarette affordability on smoking behavior among middle-aged and elderly (age 45 and older) smokers. Self-reported cigarette price and disposable income were used to calculate cigarette affordability. Cigarette consumption was measured using the number of cigarettes smoked per day reported by the survey respondents. The correlation between cigarette affordability and cigarette consumption was estimated using generalized estimating equations adjusting for demographics, socioeconomic status, geolocations, and cigarette price tiers, as well as year fixed effects. The estimated overall conditional cigarette affordability elasticity of demand was –0.165, implying a 10% decrease in cigarette affordability would result in a reduction in cigarette consumption by 1.65%. The cigarette affordability responsiveness differs by demographics, socioeconomic status, geolocations, and cigarette price tiers. This study provides evidence that tax/price policies that reduce cigarette affordability could lead to a decrease in cigarette consumption among middle-aged and elderly smokers in China. Smoke-free laws, as well as minimum price regulations, may be needed to compliment excise tax policy to target specific smoking subgroups whose cigarette consumption is less sensitive to changes in cigarette affordability.

(1) Background: Many studies have shown that increasing taxation on cigarettes does play a role in tobacco control, but few studies have focused on whether increasing cigarette excise taxes significantly affects alcohol consumption. In this article, we aim to examine the effects of China’s 2015 increase in the cigarette excise tax on residents’ regular drinking behavior. (2) Methods: Using survey data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we performed a panel logit regression analysis to model the relationship between the cigarette excise tax and regular drinking behavior. The Propensity Score Matching with Difference-in-Differences (PSM-DID) approach was adopted to determine the extent to which the cigarette excise tax affected residents’ drinking behavior. To test whether the cigarette excise tax could change regular drinking behavior by decreasing daily smoking quantity, we used an interaction term model. (3) Results: China’s 2015 increase in the cigarette excise tax had a significant negative effect on the probability of regular alcohol consumption among smokers, and the cigarette excise tax worked by reducing the average daily smoking of smokers. We also found that the regular drinking behavior of male smokers was more deeply affected by the increased cigarette excise tax than females. (4) Conclusions: Our research results not only give a deeper understanding of the impact of the cigarette excise tax, but also provide an important reference with which to guide future decisions concerning excise taxes imposed on cigarettes.

Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) are a major source of added sugars and an important focus for fiscal policies aimed at preventing obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs). We aimed to assess trends in sugar-sweetened beverage sales and inflation-adjusted prices and to estimate the price elasticity of demand across World Health Organization (WHO) regions from 2010 to 2024, providing evidence to support fiscal policies for health. Annual country-level data on sugar-sweetened beverage sales volumes and values for 93 geographic locations, representing 81.74% of the 2024 global population, were obtained from the Euromonitor International Passport database and grouped into six WHO regions. Sales values were converted to international dollars using purchasing power parity and adjusted for inflation, and regional average real prices were calculated. Trends in sales volumes, sales values, and prices were analysed using joinpoint regression. Price elasticities of demand were estimated using a baseline panel regression model of the log of sales volume per capita on the log of real price, controlling for macroeconomic indicators, with regional elasticities derived from the model’s marginal effects, and an instrumental variables specification was used for robustness. Between 2010 and 2024, the global sugar-sweetened beverage sales volume increased by 16.9%, with the largest rises in Southeast Asia (101.6%) and Africa (81.5%) and smaller increases in the Americas, the Western Pacific Region, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Europe. The global price elasticity of demand was −0.423 ( p < 0.01). It was highest in Europe (−0.828, p < 0.01) and the Americas (−0.509, p < 0.05), while elasticities in other regions were not statistically significant. The substantial increase in SSB sales in emerging markets, such as Southeast Asia and Africa, along with a moderate increase in other regions, indicates the need for comprehensive SSB control policies and the implementation of WHO SSB taxation policies (2022). The divergent regional trajectories highlight the need for comprehensive fiscal and regulatory policies to curb the growth in SSB consumption and encourage shifts towards healthier options.