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.
Authors
CPP Co-Director, IFS Research Director
Rachel is Research Director and Professor at the University of Manchester. She was made a Dame for services to economic policy and education in 2021.
Research Associate University of Bristol
Sarah is a Research Associate at the IFS and Head of the Department of Economics at the University of Bristol with interest in applied microeconomics.
Research Fellow University of Bristol
Stephanie is a Reader in Economics at the University of Bristol and an Endowed Professor of Health Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Journal article details
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Issue
- Volume 58, March 2018, pages 176-187
Suggested citation
R, Griffith and S, Smith and S, von Hinke. (2018). 'Getting a healthy start: the effectiveness of targeted' 58(2018), pp.176–187.
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