Thanks for this great analysis. This definitely speaks to some limitations of the most widely-used global health and well-being metrics. It seems to me that sugar taxes could be particularly promising due to multiple public health benefits (not only improvements in dental health). This seems like a worthy contender for the Cause Exploration Prizes; you might consider submitting it if you haven’t already!
Thank you Marshall! Definitely agree with you about the limitations of DALYs—as useful as they can be in some contexts—and the point that sugar taxes likely have benefits beyond oral health. I think sugar taxes (and maybe other regulation, like trans fat regulation) are likely to be impactful in part from having pretty broad-reaching benefits that aren’t reflected in my CEA here (blood pressure/ cardiovascular health, obesity, oral health, etc etc).
Thanks also for the note about the cause exploration prizes! Unfortunately, I think this piece is too long (and now has already been published online)—so I don’t think it’s eligible (? not quite sure) but i’ll check it out!
Thanks for this great analysis. This definitely speaks to some limitations of the most widely-used global health and well-being metrics. It seems to me that sugar taxes could be particularly promising due to multiple public health benefits (not only improvements in dental health). This seems like a worthy contender for the Cause Exploration Prizes; you might consider submitting it if you haven’t already!
Thank you Marshall! Definitely agree with you about the limitations of DALYs—as useful as they can be in some contexts—and the point that sugar taxes likely have benefits beyond oral health. I think sugar taxes (and maybe other regulation, like trans fat regulation) are likely to be impactful in part from having pretty broad-reaching benefits that aren’t reflected in my CEA here (blood pressure/ cardiovascular health, obesity, oral health, etc etc).
Thanks also for the note about the cause exploration prizes! Unfortunately, I think this piece is too long (and now has already been published online)—so I don’t think it’s eligible (? not quite sure) but i’ll check it out!