Are fruit and vegetable voucher policies cost-effective?
Abstract
We quantify the economic and health effects of a fruit and vegetable (FV) voucher policy designed for increasing FV consumption among low-income consumers. The analysis combined two models: an economic model which predicts how FV consumption is affected by a change in policy, and a health model which evaluates the impact of a change in FV consumption in terms of death avoided and life-years saved. We find that targeted FV voucher policies can be more cost-effective than non-targeted policies based on tax decreases, but only when the targeted policy is focused narrowly on the lowest income consumers.