Tag: Tax
A Potential Broadening of the Excise Tax on Food Products High in Sugar and Salt: The Case of Latvia

Overweight and obesity are significant public health issues, contributing to various chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and certain cancers. Latvia’s second-highest share of overweight adults in the EU is a compelling reason for public health measures. These should aim to discourage excessive consumption of high-calorie foods and beverages. Excise tax is one of the tools in a complex approach to encourage a balanced diet and promote positive health outcomes. Motivated by evidence from Hungary, currently the only country in Europe imposing a tax on pre-packaged food products high in sugar and salt, we simulate the short-term impact of the introduction of a differentiated broad-based tax on food products in Latvia. We conclude that to influence consumer behaviour, price increases should be at least 10 percent, which implies introducing tax rates that are at least 1.5 times higher than those in Hungary.
Extremely High Overweight and Obesity Rates in Latvia
Overweight and obesity are serious public health challenges across Europe. Together with an unbalanced diet and low physical activity they contribute to many non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including heart diseases, diabetes and certain cancers (WHO, 2022). For many individuals, being overweight is also linked to psychological problems.
Overweight and obesity rates are extremely high in all EU countries. In 2022, more than half of all adults in the EU (51.3 percent) were overweight (including pre-obese and obese). Latvia has the 2nd highest rate of overweight adults in the EU (60.4 percent). This puts significant pressure on Latvia’s health care system and social resources.
Recognizing that overweight and obesity has multifactorial causes, a comprehensive approach is required to effectively tackle this problem, involving experts from various fields and addressing the issue from multiple angles.
One potential tool in a complex approach is an excise tax on foods and drinks high in sugar and salt since excessive consumption of such foods and drinks represents a major risk factor for NCDs (WHO, 2015a). Such a tax could help to reduce excessive consumption, encourage healthier eating, and improve public health outcomes.
The Intake of Added Sugars
According to data from the EFSA Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Alergens (EFSA, 2022), the main source of added sugar intake in almost all European countries is sugar and confectionery. The numbers for adults (18–64 years) range from 20 percent in Austria to 57 percent in Italy (48 percent in Latvia). For children aged 1–18 years, sugar and confectionary contribute to 36 – 44 percent of added sugar intake in Latvia.
In Latvia, other key sources of added sugar are fine bakery wares, processed fruits, and vegetables. The contribution of sweetened soft and fruit drinks to total added sugar intake is only 8 percent for adults (18–64 years) and 3–7 percent for children (1–18 years).
Excise Tax on Soft Drinks
As of 2024, 14 European countries have implemented taxes on sugar-sweetened soft drinks. In Latvia, the tax was introduced in 1999 and was mainly motivated by the financial needs of the state budget.
The evidence from international case studies (WHO, 2023) shows that taxes on sugar-sweetened soft drinks can be effective in reducing consumption in the short term, particularly when the tax leads to significant price increases that reduce affordability. However, the overall evidence on whether these taxes successfully reduce sugar intake is inconclusive. In a review by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER, 2017), the authors conclude that methodologically robust studies show only small reductions in sugar intake, too small to produce significant health benefits, and easily offset if consumers switch to other high-calorie products. On the other hand, studies reporting a meaningful change in sugar intake often assume no compensatory substitution. At the same time, experience from Hungary suggests that a sugar tax imposed on a wide range of products is effective in reducing the overall consumption of products subject to the tax, and in encouraging healthier consumption habits. The impact assessment conducted 3 years after the introduction of the tax in Hungary showed that consumers of unhealthy food products responded to the tax by choosing a cheaper, often healthier product (7–16 percent of those surveyed), consuming less of the unhealthy product (5–16 percent), switching to another brand of the product (5–11 percent), or substituting it with another food item – often a healthier alternative (WHO, 2015b).
The Short-term Effect of a Broad-Based Excise Tax in Latvia
Approach
Motivated by the evidence from Hungary, we simulate the short-term impact of the introduction of a similar differentiated broad-based tax on food products high in sugar and salt using the approach applied in Pļuta et. al (2020). First, we use AC Nielsen monthly data from 2019 to 2023 on sales volume and prices of pre-packaged food products of selected categories in the modern trade retail market to estimate the price elasticity of demand for these products. The selected product categories included:
- Pre-packaged sweetened products (e.g., breakfast cereals, cacao, chocolate bars, soft and hard candies, sweet biscuits, etc.)
- Sweetened dairy products (e.g., ice cream, yoghurt, condensed milk, curd countlines, etc.)
- Salted snacks (salted nuts, salted biscuits, etc.)
- Ready-to-eat and instant foods (e.g., pizza cooled and frozen, frozen dumplings, vegetables and canned beans, etc.)
- Condiments (e.g., dehydrated instant and cooking culinary, dehydrated sauces and seasonings, dressings, ketchup, mayonnaise, etc.)
Second, we simulate different scenarios to assess the increase in price, reduction in sales and budgetary effect using the estimated elasticities and assuming different degrees of tax pass-through rate to retail prices (100 and 50 percent, respectively). Our results represent a short-term or direct fiscal effect, meaning we do not account for any second-round effects that may arise due to changes in domestic production and employment, which could in turn generate additional tax revenues.
The Tax Object and Rates
In defining the scenarios to be considered when modelling the potential broadening of the tax base, we use the Hungarian Public Health Product Tax (PHPT) as a practice example. As a basis, we use the list of product categories under taxation by the PHPT, the two-tier tax system and the PHPT rates as of 2024. In addition, we are also looking at other product categories (such as sugar sweetened dairy products, sweetened cereals and vegetables and beans containered), expanding the tax base even more. In total, we simulated four scenarios for taxing the food products high in sugar and salt. The scenarios consider a two-tier tax system, meaning products with lower sugar or salt content are taxed at a lower rate, while those with higher content face a higher tax. For condiments, only a high rate is applied due to the, usually high, salt content. A differentiated tax rate is expected to stimulate the industry to drive down sugar and salt content in their products, i.e., offering sugar and salt-reduced options. The scenarios differ from each other in the applicable rates.
- Scenario 1: Uses the same tax rates as Latvia’s excise tax on non-alcoholic beverages (as of March 2024) – EUR 7.40 per 100 kg (low rate) and EUR 17.50 per 100 kg (high rate).
- Scenario 2: Uses Hungary’s PHPT rates – in the general case, the low rate is EUR 17 per 100 kg, and the high rate is EUR 54 per 100 kg.
- Scenario 3: Sets rates 1.5 times higher than Hungary’s rates.
- Scenario 4: Doubles Hungary’s rates.
Assumptions
Unfortunately, the retail price and sales time series used in the analysis are not disaggregated into groups according to the sugar and salt content in the product. As a result, we apply assumptions to estimate the potential range of tax impacts.
To calculate the lower bound of the expected impact, we assume that 100 percent of sales in each product category are subject to the new sugar and salt tax, but all products have low sugar and salt content and therefore qualify for the lower tax rate.
To calculate the upper bound, we assume that 25 percent of the sales volume is taxed at the lower rate (due to low sugar and salt content), while the remaining 75 percent of sales are taxed at the higher rate, reflecting higher sugar and salt levels in those products.
Results
According to our estimations, the application of an excise tax on food products high in sugar and salt could lead to a price increase and sales decrease of taxed food products. The magnitude would depend on the type of food product (i.e., average retail price in the country) and scenario assumed (i.e., tax rates). Within each single scenario, the largest impact is expected for condiments. This is because we simulate only the high tax rate applied to them (not a two-tier system), as is the case in Hungary. The tax makes up a larger share of their price, and due to high price sensitivity, the decrease in sales is also greater.
Based on previous research, we conclude that price increases need to reach at least 10 percent to meaningfully influence consumer behaviour. This level of change is achieved in Scenario 3, which assumes tax rates 1.5 times higher than those used in Hungary.
Below we present the obtained estimations under Scenario 3. The estimates for Scenarios 1 and 2 are not included here because the price increase caused by the tax does not reach 10 percent for several product categories. Under Scenario 4 the price changes could exceed 10 percent but this scenario may also provide stronger incentives for manufacturers to reformulate their products (and in this case, the average price increase within a given product category will be lower). The results for Scenario 4 are available in a recent BICEPS report (Pļuta et al., 2024).
Under Scenario 3, with full tax pass-through (100 percent), the estimated reduction in sales volume is:
- 3.0–8.1 percent for pre-packaged sweetened products;
- 3.6–17.1 percent for sweetened dairy products;
- 0.9–4.7 percent for salted snacks;
- 10.4–54.1 percent for ready-to-eat and instant foods;
- 11.0–11.8 percent for condiments.
If only 50 percent of the tax is passed through to retail prices, the sales reductions would be approximately half as big.
The estimated revenue from the excise tax in this scenario would range between EUR 15.0 million and EUR 54.9 million. The resulting change in VAT revenue would range from a loss of EUR 0.7 million to a gain of EUR 1.1 million.
Conclusion
Although overweight and obesity rates are extremely high in all EU countries, Latvia, in 2022, had the second highest rate in the EU. In this brief, we explore the use of the excise tax as one of the tools in a complex approach to discourage excessive consumption of foods and beverages high in sugar and salt and encourage a balanced diet and promote positive health outcomes. Based on findings from previous studies, a price increase of at least 10 percent is needed to influence consumer behaviour. In Latvia, this would require tax rates approximately 1.5 times higher than those applied in Hungary, i.e. in the general case equal to EUR 25.5 (low rate) and EUR 81 (high rate) per 100 kg of product. Under such a scenario, the estimated revenue from the tax could range from EUR 15.0 to 54.9 million. For comparison, in 2024, Latvia’s excise tax on soft drinks generated EUR 15.6 million. To remain effective, tax rates should be adjusted over time in line with growth in disposable income.
Acknowledgement
This brief is based on a study Taxation of the non-alcoholic beverages with excise tax in the Baltic countries. Potential broadening of the tax base to food products high in sugar and salt completed by BICEPS researchers in 2024 (Pļuta et al., 2024). The study was commissioned by VA Government. It was developed independently and reflects only the views of the authors.
References
- EFSA Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Alergens. (2022). “Tolerable upper intake level for dietary sugars”. Requestor: European Commission, Available: https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2022.7074
- NZIER.(2017). “Sugar tax: A review of the evidence”. A report for the Ministry of Health. https://www.nzier.org.nz/publications/sugar-taxes-a-review-of-the-evidence
- Pļuta A., Krumina M., Sauka A. (2024). “Taxation of the non-alcoholic beverages with excise tax in the Baltic countries. Potential broadening of the tax base to food products high in sugar and salt”. https://biceps.org/2024/12/17/exploring-the-potential-for-expanding-excise-taxes-to-products-high-in-sugar-and-salt/
- Pļuta A., Hazans M, Švilpe I.E., Zasova A., Sauka A. (2020). “Excise tax policy in the Baltic countries: alcoholic beverages, soft drinks and tobacco products”. https://www.sseriga.edu/study-excise-duty-policy-baltic-states-alcoholic-beverages-soft-drinks-and-tobacco-products
- WHO. (2015a), “Fiscal Policies for Diet and Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases”, https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/obesity/fiscal-policies-for-diet-and-the-prevention-of-noncommunicable-diseases-0.pdf?sfvrsn=84ee20c_2
- WHO. (2015b). “Public health product tax in Hungary: an example of successful intersectoral action using a fiscal tool to promote healthier food choices and raise revenues for public health: good practice brief”. World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe. https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/375098
- WHO. (2022). “WHO European Regional Obesity Report 2022”. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe ISBN: 978-92-890-5773-8. https://www.who.int/europe/publications/i/item/9789289057738
- WHO. (2023). “Global report on the use of sugar-sweetened beverage taxes.” ISBN: 978-92-4-008499-5 https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240084995
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in policy briefs and other publications are those of the authors; they do not necessarily reflect those of the FREE Network and its research institutes.
Tax Meat to Save the Baltic Sea

In a world of perfect markets, where prices are “right”, consumers’ choice should, with few exceptions, be limited only by their budget constraints. But in the case of agricultural products, the “right” prices are not in place. One reason is that producers in this sector do not bear the costs for the externalities they generate. Focusing on the case of the Baltic Sea, this brief provides some insights into why livestock producers are, by and large, exempted from environmental policies, and raises the question whether something should be done about it.
An Italian expression describes the attempt to juggle too many projects or attain too many goals at once, with the tacit implication that something is bound to fail. “Avere troppa carne al fuoco“: literally, to have too much meat on the grill. This, in a metaphorical but also quite literal sense, is the dominant impression left by some summer reading about the situation of the Baltic Sea.
The Baltic Sea is home to the world’s largest anthropogenic “dead zone”. The main culprit is the unsustainable livestock production in the region, generating externalities (i.e., costs that economic actors impose on others without paying a price for it) that short-circuit the functioning of the markets, creating a case for regulatory intervention. The concept of externalities is today most famously related to the issue of carbon dioxide emissions and climate change, felt by many as the most pressing challenge mankind has to deal with at present. In recent years, a lot of brain power has been spent on this, but there is more to environmental degradation and climate change than just CO2 and rising temperatures. A very conspicuous example is literally under our eyes, in the water body that lies between our lands. What should we do about it?
A Layman Understanding of the Background
For at least three decades, eutrophication (i.e., nutrient accumulation) and hypoxia (i.e., oxygen depletion) in the Baltic Sea has triggered and boosted each other in a vicious cycle. The nutrients discharged in the water fertilize the ocean floor resulting in an excess algal bloom. This underwater forest consumes oxygen, thus altering the balance between chemical elements in the water, so that even more nutrients are released and the cycle continues (for further references, see [16, 19, 21]). Beyond the algae and the decreased transparency of the water, these deep changes in the sea environment start to make them noticed in fish stocks depletion, but can more generally become devastating to both the marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Moreover, according to researchers, these conditions are going to increase the sensitivity of the area to the global climatic changes expected in the near future. This is seriously threatening a large part of economic activities in the whole catchment of the sea, an area of 22,500,000 km2 over nine countries with 85 million inhabitants.
Since 1974, all sources of pollution around the sea have been subject to a single convention, the Helsinki Convention, signed by the then seven Baltic coastal states. The Helsinki Commission, or HELCOM, is the governing body of the Convention, whose present Contracting Parties are Denmark, Estonia, the European Community, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden. For over three decades, HELCOM has monitored the situation. Alarming reports have followed one upon the other, together with policy recommendations to the contracting parties.
As stated on its website, “the work of HELCOM has led to improvements in various fields, but further work is still needed [… and] the remaining challenges are more difficult than earlier obstacles”. Reductions in emissions achieved so far are low hanging fruits, concerning major point sources, such as larger cities’ sewage treatment plants and industrial wastewater outlets. Due to both technical and socio-economic obstacles, achieving further reductions will be a tougher task. This is because it is now time to address diffuse sources of nutrients such as run-off from over-fertilized agricultural lands. Nevertheless, according to numerous studies (among others, [19, 23]), a substantial reduction of the nutrient load discharged into the sea appears necessary in order to reduce further damage; all the more, so given that it takes many decades for the sea to recover. The question is hence whether more stringent policy instruments might be needed.
According to researchers at HELCOM, eutrophication of the Baltic Sea is due to the excess of nitrogen and phosphorus loads coming from land-based sources. About 75% of nitrogen and 52% of phosphorus come from agriculture and the livestock sector. In particular, the main reason for the sharp increase in nutrient loads during the last 50 years is the intensification and rationalization process. This was partly stimulated by the EU Common Agricultural Policy in its early phase, with a geographic separation between crop and animal production [6, 9, 10]. On the one hand, animal farms grew ever bigger, in the order of tens of thousands of animals for cattle, hundreds of thousands for swine and millions for chicken farms. These giant facilities produce way more manure than what could be absorbed by crop production in their vicinity. Cheap fodder to these extremely dense animal populations is produced on large scale crop fields elsewhere, too far away for transport of manure to be feasible and instead using high-yield chemical fertilizers. This way, the nutrient surplus is multiplied at both locations; it leaks through the ground or in the waterways from the big heaps of manure that cannot be properly stored or disposed of, and it leaks from the over-fertilized fields (shocking case studies are reported by HELCOM [11]).
However, a different type of agriculture exists in the area known as Ecological Recycling Agriculture (ERA). This is based on more traditional methods and means that farms have a lower animal density and use the manure as fertilizer in an integrated production of crop to be used for animal feed. In this way, ERA manages to better close the cycle of nutrients with very little dispersion to the environment. Scenarios simulations [12] show that, expanding the presence of ERA from the negligible shares it currently accounts for (between zero and a few percentage points, varying by sector and country) would contribute considerably to solving the problem. The nitrogen surplus discharged into the sea yearly could decrease by as much as 61% if all agricultural production in Poland and the Baltic states were converted to the standard of the best ERA facilities currently operating (the Swedish ones), without affecting the current volumes of crop and animal products. However, this is not likely to happen spontaneously, precisely because of the externalities discussed above. As long as the external costs are unaccounted for and ignored, scale economies push in the direction of concentration and intensification, which is the current development path of the sector.
A Difficult Question
Zooming out from the Baltic Sea and looking at the bigger picture, one starts to wonder why the agricultural sector is so seldom a part of environmental policy or even the debate. Recent research has raised awareness about the contribution of the agriculture and livestock sector to climate change [5, 8, 14, 17]. Beyond nitrogen and phosphorus, the expansion of livestock farming is behind the rising emissions of methane. It is the next most common greenhouse gas after CO2 and responsible for 19% of global warming from human activities. This is more than the share of all transportation in the world combined [18].
A new American Economic Review paper [13] provides a broad picture of the sources of air pollution in the American economy, for the first time computed separately by sector and industry, and with the purpose of incorporating externalities into national accounts. Crop production and livestock production stand out among the five industries with the largest gross external damage (GED), defined as the dollar value of emissions from sources within the industry. In fact, the agricultural sector has the highest GED to value added ratio.
However, greenhouse gases are not the only externality generated by livestock production. The animals’ living conditions under modern farming methods favor the emergence of infections and new diseases that reach much further than through direct consumption of related products, as the recent E. coli episode in Europe brought to attention. The generalized use of antibiotics in animal feed, legal and widespread in some countries [3], constitutes an even bigger health threat. This is because it has the potential of generating antibiotic-resistant mutations of bacteria against which we would be completely defenseless should they pass to humans.
Moreover, the public has from an animal-rights and ethics perspective become increasingly concerned about the animals’ living conditions. 77% of respondents to the Eurobarometer 2005 believe that the welfare-protection of farm animals in their country needs to be improved. 96% of American respondents to the Gallup 2003 survey say that animals deserve legal protection, and 76% say that animal welfare is more important than low meat prices. Additionally, a comparable share advocates passing strict laws concerning the treatment of farmed animals.
In rich countries, the increased share of meat in the diet, which has been stimulated by decreasing relative prices, constitutes according to some medical research a health hazard in itself. In developing countries, raising livestock is an inefficient and expensive converter of fossil fuels into calories for human consumption. In addition, fodder production often displaces other important land uses such as forests.
It is easy to rationalize the absence of these issues from the policy agenda. It is not just a matter of powerful lobbies. The ownership structure and size composition make the agricultural sector so heterogeneous that the challenges in regulating it can easily be imagined. Adding to this, is the special role of food in culture, the “local” products so often linked to national identity, the romantic idea of the land nourishing its people, and of course the strategic role of being food self-sufficient [7]. In the past, the latter was linked to wars and famines. Perhaps, even in our projections about the future, self-reliance in food production still plays an important role in the perspective of global climate changes and accordingly limited or modified trade flows. However, we cannot afford to grant this sector a special status and ignore all the social costs it generates. Can we learn anything from current research on how all these externalities should be addressed?
Policy Tools
In the terminology of Baumol and Oates’ classic book on environmental policy, instruments can be categorized as “command and control”. For example, explicit regulation of standards and technologies with associated prohibitions and sanctions; information provision, that then lets the power in the hands of the consumers; and price-based instruments, in the form of taxes, subsidies or trading schemes. These can be imposed on inputs or output, with different implications [4].
The relatively high-level standards of EU environmental legislation (legally stipulated maximum livestock density per hectare, requirements of minimum manure storage capacity, ban on winter manure spreading) is effectively enforced in some countries. In the newer members states, on the other hand, issues have been reported [15] in the form of incomplete translation of EU legislation into the national regulations and ineffective enforcing, significant examples of unlawful practices by foreign companies (e.g. Danish companies in Poland and Lithuania) and limited public access to environmental information. When it comes to non-EU members in the Baltic Sea area, these problems are scaled up, with very large animal farms, lack of many important environmental regulations (no limits on livestock density, capacity of manure storage or ammonia emissions from stored and utilized manure, too generous limits for amount of manure allowed, etc.) and an insufficient environmental information system.
Information undoubtedly plays an important role, but to rely on consumers’ pressure might not be sufficient to solve this type of issues. Consumers are not famously a very effective pressure group, because of organizational issues and the classic collective action problems. Direct regulation of activities is certainly necessary, especially when it comes to the most important rules of the game for producers. However, the heterogeneity of the sector creates a trade-off between environmental precision and transaction costs of implementation and control in practice. For example, the damage of nitrate leaching depends on the type of soil; the policy measure is precise when it restricts leaching losses on sites that have specific characteristics. However, the costs of enforcing measures only at these sites are high. Alternatively, curbing nitrate use in general has low transaction cost, but because it will also affect sites without problems of nitrate in the groundwater, it also has low precision. This may be considered unfair or illegitimate [24].
Another limit of this approach is the lack of flexibility: once a particular practice becomes forbidden, it is likely that some other behavior emerges from the creativity of the actors involved that was not foreseen by the norm but could potentially present the same problems as the forbidden one. This will happen as long as the private incentives of the actors are not aligned with the policy goal.
Often the best way to curb a particular activity that, as in this case, has a number of unwanted side effects, is not to ban it but to put a price on it. As in the case made for CO2, a market based approach could also in this area offer the advantage of being cost-effective and at the same time stimulate creative new solutions, e.g. new technologies for manure processing. Therefore, one immediate questions concerns why the agriculture sector is not included in the European emission trading scheme (ETS)?
The European Union launched already in 2005 its version of a cap and trade scheme, covering some 11,000 power stations and industrial plants in 30 countries. As from 2013, the scope of the European ETS will be extended to include more sectors such as aviation, but not agriculture or livestock. The main limitation of ETS is that it does not address spatial concentration problems. When emissions have an immediate effect on the local environment, permit trading does not guarantee the achievement of targets at each location. On the contrary, the possibility of trading emission permits combined with economies of scale might lead to the emergence of emission hotspots, sites with highly concentrated amounts of pollutants locally affecting the environment and the population. A proposed variation is a scheme for tradable concentration permits, either for manure [20] or for animal production [2]. A concentration permit is defined as the permission to deposit a quantity of pollutants at a specific location. The permits can then enter a trading system, but the use of the right remains linked to the site. Some authors believe that in practice, such systems generate high transaction costs and cannot achieve cost-effectiveness.
An input tax, for example on chemical fertilizers or imported fodder, or a direct tax on emissions would only affect the balance between domestic production and imports from countries that do not have the same regulation. Moreover, as discussed above, emissions are far from being the only problem. An alternative, as argued by Wirsenius, Hedenus and Mohlin at the Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg [22] is an output tax, i.e. a tax on meat consumption, on the grounds that costs of monitoring emissions are high, there are limited options for reducing emissions apart from output reduction, and the possibility for output substitution in the consumption basket are substantial. Moreover, a tax on consumption would avoid international competition from products that are not produced with the same standards.
A meat tax has shortly appeared in the public debate, for example in the Netherlands and in Sweden, but it has failed to gain much popularity so far. Meat consumption in the area has increased considerably in recent years –between 30% in Germany and 160% in Denmark since 1960 – and relative prices have fallen. By a combination of price and income effects, it has become a norm to eat meat every day, or even at every meal. It must be recognized, though, that while each single policy instrument discussed above has its shortcomings, because of the many interrelated aspects of the problem, a reduction in output, perhaps through a consumption tax, would address in a more comprehensive way all the different externalities related to meat production. After all, maybe there is just too much meat on our grills.
Recommended Further Readings
- [1] ”Slaktkropparnas kvalitet i ekologisk uppfödning”. Technical report, Ekokött, 2006.
- [2] J. Alkan-Olsson. Sustainable Water Management: Organization, Participation, Influence, Economy., volume 5, chapter Alternative economic instruments of control. VASTRA, Gothenburg University, 2004.
- [3] Mary D. Barton. “Antibiotic use in animal feed and its impact on human health”. Nutrition Research Reviews, 13:279–299, 2000.
- [4] W.J. Baumol and W.E. Oates. The theory of environmental policy. Cambridge Univ Pr, 1988.
- [5] J. Bellarby, B. Foereid, and A. Hastings. Cool Farming: Climate impacts of agriculture and mitigation potential. Greenpeace International, 2008.
- [6] M. Brandt and H. Ejhed. Trk transport-retention-källfördelning. Belastning på havet. Naturvårdsverket Rapport, 5247, 2002.
- [7] F. Braudel, S. Reynolds, and S. Reynolds. The structures of everyday life: The limits of the possible. Harper & Row, Publ., 1981.
- [8] A. Golub, B. Henderson, and T. Hertel. Ghg mitigation policies in livestock sectors: Competitiveness, emission leakage and food security. In Agricultural and Applied Economics Association 2011 Annual Meeting, July 24-26, 2011, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, 2011.
- [9] A. Granstedt. Increasing the efficiency of plant nutrient recycling within the agricultural system as a way of reducing the load to the environment–experience from Sweden and Finland. Agriculture, ecosystems & environment, 80(1-2):169–185, 2000.
- [10] A. Granstedt and M. Larsson. “Sustainable governance of the agriculture and the Baltic Sea – agricultural reforms”, food production and curbed eutrophication. Ecological Economics, 69:1943–1951, 2010.
- [11] HELCOM. “Balthazar project 2009-2010: Reducing nutrient loading from large scale animal farming in Russia”. Technical report, 2010.
- [12] M. Larsson and A. Granstedt. “Sustainable governance of the agriculture and the Baltic Sea–agricultural reforms, food production and curbed eutrophication”. Ecological Economics, 69(10):1943–1951, 2010.
- [13] Nicholas Z. Muller, Robert Mendelsohn, and William Nordhaus. “Environmental accounting for pollution in the United States economy”. American Economic Review, 101:1649–1675, 2011.
- [14] T. Nauclér and P.A. Enkvist. “Pathways to a low-carbon economy: Version 2 of the global greenhouse gas abatement cost curve”. McKinsey & Company, pages 26–31, 2009.
- [15] J. Skorupski. “Report on industrial swine and cattle farming in the Baltic Sea catchment area”. Technical report, Coalition Clean Baltic, 2006.
- [16] B. Smith, A. Aasa, R. Ahas, T. Blenckner, T.V. Callaghan, J. Chazal, C. Humborg, A.M. Jönsson, S. Kellomäki, A. Kull, et al. “Climate-related change in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems”. Assessment of Climate Change for the Baltic Sea Basin, pages 221–308, 2008.
- [17] P. Smith, D. Martino, Z. Cai, D. Gwary, H. Janzen, P. Kumar, B. McCarl, S. Ogle, F. OMara, C. Rice, et al. “Greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture”. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, 363(1492):789–813, 2008.
- [18] H. Steinfeld, P. Gerber, T. Wassenaar, V. Castel, M. Rosales, and C. de Haan. “Livestock’s long shadow: environmental issues and options”. 2006.
- [19] E. Vahtera, D.J. Conley, B.G. Gustafsson, H. Kuosa, H. Pitkänen, O.P. Savchuk, T. Tamminen, M. Viitasalo, M. Voss, N. Wasmund, et al. “Internal ecosystem feedbacks enhance nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria blooms and complicate management in the Baltic Sea”. AMBIO: A journal of the Human Environment, 36(2):186–194, 2007.
- [20] B. Van der Straeten, J. Buysse, S. Nolte, L. Lauwers, D. Claeys, and G. Van Huylenbroeck. “Markets of concentration permits: The case of manure policy”. Ecological Economics, 2011.
- [21] H. von Storch and A. Omstedt. “The BALTEX Assessment of Climate Change for the Baltic Sea basin, chapter Introduction and summary”. Berlin, Germany: Springer., 2008.
- [22] S. Wirsenius, F. Hedenus, and K. Mohlin. “Greenhouse gas taxes on animal food products: rationale, tax scheme and climate mitigation effects”. Climatic Change, pages 1–26, 2010.
- [23] F. Wulff, O.P. Savchuk, A. Sokolov, C. Humborg, and C.M. Mörth. “Management options and effects on a marine ecosystem: assessing the future of the Baltic”. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 36(2):243–249, 2007.
- [24] O. Oenema. “Governmental policies and measures regulating nitrogen and phosphorus from animal manure in European agriculture”. Journal of Animal Science, 2004.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in policy briefs and other publications are those of the authors; they do not necessarily reflect those of the FREE Network and its research institutes.