How Well Targeted Are Soda Taxes?
American Economic Review
vol. 110,
no. 11, November 2020
(pp. 3661-3704)
Abstract
Soda taxes aim to reduce excessive sugar consumption. We assess who is most impacted by soda taxes. We estimate demand using micro longitudinal data covering on-the-go purchases, and exploit the panel dimension to estimate individual-specific preferences. We relate these preferences and counterfactual predictions to individual characteristics and show that soda taxes are relatively effective at targeting the sugar intake of the young, are less successful at targeting the intake of those with high total dietary sugar, and are unlikely to be strongly regressive especially if consumers benefit from averted internalities.Citation
Dubois, Pierre, Rachel Griffith, and Martin O'Connell. 2020. "How Well Targeted Are Soda Taxes?" American Economic Review, 110 (11): 3661-3704. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20171898Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
- H22 Taxation and Subsidies: Incidence
- H25 Business Taxes and Subsidies including sales and value-added (VAT)
- H71 State and Local Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue