Journal
SOCIAL SCIENCE & MEDICINE
Volume 274, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113799
Keywords
Sugar tax; Difference-in-differences; Consumer response
Funding
- Chair in Public Finance: Healthcare and Education Policy Assessment (EUREST Catalunya)
- MINECO/AEI/FEDER, UE [ECO2017-83771-C3-3-R]
- marketing department of the supermarket chain
- [2017SGR263]
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The study found that the introduction of taxes on sugar sweetened beverages affected consumer purchasing behavior, with households reducing the quantity of taxed beverages purchased and increasing the purchase of untaxed beverages, resulting in an overall reduction in sugar content in beverages.
It is unclear what the effects of taxes on sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) are on consumer behaviour and which consumers may be affected the most. We evaluate the effect of the SSB tax introduced in Catalonia (but not in the rest of Spain) in May 2017 using loyalty card data of monthly purchases by 884,843 households from May 2016 to April 2018. Using a Difference-in-Differences approach, we study the SSB tax effect on the purchased quantity of beverages and sugar. Our results suggest a reduction in purchases of taxed beverages and a small increase in purchases of untaxed beverages. Households have substituted taxed beverages with their lower sugar (untaxed) counterparts. This has led to a 2.2% overall reduction in sugar purchases from beverages. Our study implies that although sin taxes moderately change consumer behaviour, a combination of different policies would be required to tackle obesity.
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