Summary
Franco Sassi holds a Chair in International Health Policy and Economics and is the Director of the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Innovation. His work has been aimed at assessing the impacts of public policies to tackle major chronic diseases and their predisposing risk factors, including poor nutrition, physical inactivity, alcohol and tobacco use, and a range of environmental and social exposures. He is the author and editor of a large number of publications on economic aspects of public health, including the books “Obesity and the economics of prevention: Fit not fat”, in 2010, "Tackling harmful alcohol use: Economics and public health policy" in 2015, and "Health Taxes: Policy and Practice" in 2022. Prior to joining Imperial College, Franco was a Senior Health Economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development - OECD, Paris - where he developed and was responsible for the Organisation's Public Health Programme. And before that he was a senior lecturer in health policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and director of the graduate programme in Health Policy, Planning and Financing. Franco obtained his doctorate in health economics from the University of London. He held an adjunct professor position at the Université de Montréal, as well as visiting positions at a number of universities in the United States, including University of California at Berkeley, Harvard University, University of California at San Francisco, and Duke University, and at the Catholic University of Rome. He was awarded a 2000-01 Harkness Fellowship in Health Care Policy by the Commonwealth Fund.
Publications
Journals
Gressier M, Frost G, Hill Z, et al., 2024, The effectiveness of mandatory vs. voluntary food reformulation policies: a rapid review, The British Journal of Nutrition: an International Journal of Nutritional Science, ISSN:0007-1145
Gressier M, Frost G, HIll Z, et al., 2024, Supply- and demand-side drivers of the change in the sugar density of food purchased between 2015 and 2018 in Great Britain, The British Journal of Nutrition: an International Journal of Nutritional Science, ISSN:0007-1145
Pineda E, Li J, Li D, et al., 2024, Lessons on food security from the COVID-19 pandemic in Bermuda, Plos Global Public Health, Vol:4, ISSN:2767-3375
Pineda AE, Gressier M, Li D, et al., 2024, Review: Effectiveness and policy implications of health taxes on foods high in fat, salt, and sugar, Food Policy, Vol:123, ISSN:0306-9192
Allais O, Enderli G, Sassi F, et al., 2023, Effective policies to promote sugar reduction in soft drinks: lessons from a comparison of six European countries, European Journal of Public Health, Vol:33, ISSN:1101-1262, Pages:1095-1101