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
Rachel Griffith
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.
Sarah Smith
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.
Stephanie von Hinke
Stephanie is a Reader in Economics at the University of Bristol and an Endowed Professor of Health Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
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