Franco Sassi holds a Chair of International Health Policy and Economics and is the Director of the Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation at Imperial Business School. Previously he was a Senior Economist and Head of the Economics of Public Health Programme at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris, France), and before that a Senior Lecturer in Health Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He has held adjunct and visiting positions at universities in the US, including the University of California at Berkeley, Harvard University, the University of California at San Francisco, and Duke University — as well as at the at the Université de Montréal in Canada and at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome. Franco Sassi's research focuses on the economics of chronic disease prevention and health-related behaviours, with a special focus on the impact of fiscal policies on consumption behaviour. Prof. Sassi has led national and international research programmes, and his research has influenced government policies in countries across the globe. He is a member of many international committees and technical expert groups and has had a long-standing collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) in many areas of health policy. Franco Sassi has led major publications, including, among others, Health Taxes: Policy and Practice (World Scientific, 2022), Tackling Harmful Use: Economics and public health policy (OECD, 2015), Promoting Health, preventing disease: The economic case (OUP, 2015) and Obesity and the Economics of Prevention: Fit not Fat (OECD and Edward Elgar, 2010).When captured rigorously, patient-reported outcome (PRO) data can provide valuable evidence on treatment efficacy and tolerability from the patient's own perspective. These insights are vital for shared decision-making, allowing for a personalized assessment of the trade-offs between clinical benefits and quality of daily life. Despite their value, high-quality PRO collection and reporting face significant methodological hurdles.
Franco Sassi was the PI of a 3-year study funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to study the potential impact of taxes on foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) in the United Kingdom. The study included an estimation of consumer responses to price changes triggered by alternative tax policy scenarios, along with the simulation of long-term health and economic outcomes (30 years into the future) for the UK population, based on Imperial’s Health-GPS microsimulation model. The study shows that major health gains can be generated through changes in taxation that would not meaningfully increase household expenditure on food, including for low-income households. However, an appropriate design of any tax changes is critical for the success of the policy.
Date: September 10th, 2026
Time: 10:00 – 11:00 AM ET
Join the virtual seminar: https://tuftsmedicine.zoom.us/j/98438770664?pwd=zMF2ePwhgET05bovsP5aLUvRymXtxj.1
Passcode: 200864
