How do consumers respond to “sin taxes”? New evidence from a tax on sugary drinks
Autor/a
Fichera, Eleonora
Mora, Toni
G Lopez-Valcarcel, Beatriz
Roche, David
Data de publicació
2021-04ISSN
0277-9536
Resum
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.
Tipus de document
Article
Versió del document
Versió publicada
Llengua
English
Matèries (CDU)
33 - Economia
61 - Medicina
Paraules clau
Sucre -- Impostos
Begudes de cola
Consumidors -- Conducta
Obesitat
Azucar -- Impuestos
Bebidas gaseosas
Consumidores -- Conducta
Obesidad
Sugar -- Taxes
Cola drinks
Consumers' behavior
Obesity
Pàgines
11
Publicat per
Elsevier
Col·lecció
274;
Publicat a
Social Science & Medicine
Citació
Fichera, Eleonora; Mora, Toni; Lopez-Valcarcel, Beatriz G. [et al.]. How do consumers respond to “sin taxes”? New evidence from a tax on sugary drinks. Social Science & Medicine, 2021, 274, 113799. Disponible en: <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953621001313>. Fecha de acceso: 24 mar. 2021. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113799
Número de l'acord de la subvenció
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/2PE/CO2017-83771-C3-3-R
Aquest element apareix en la col·lecció o col·leccions següent(s)
Drets
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Excepte que s'indiqui una altra cosa, la llicència de l'ítem es descriu com http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/