Amelia Vader amelia.vader@ gmail.com Evans School of Public Affairs MPA 2013 AbstrAct Introduction Rising obesity rates and lower state and local revenues have resulted in more state governments adopting taxes on soda over the last ten years. The intended effects of soda taxes are to reduce the amount of soda purchased and consumed. This research uses data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Survei...

Globally, soda taxes are gaining momentum as powerful interventions to discourage sugar consumption and thereby reduce the growing burden of obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Evidence from early adopters including Mexico and Berkeley, California, confirms that soda taxes can disincentivize consumption through price increases and raise revenue to support government programs. The Unit...

This article is part of a series of Policy Issues articles on Soda Tax. You can also find articles on Should Soft Drinks be Taxed More Heavily?, Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Taxation as Public Health Policy-Lessons from Tobacco, Soda Taxes and Substitution Effects: Will Obesity be Affected?, Better Milk than Cola: Soft Drink Taxes and Substitution Effects, Evaluating Excise Taxes: The Need to Consi...

BACKGROUND Sodas are widely sold in vending machines and other school venues in the United States, particularly in high school. Research suggests that policy changes have reduced soda access, but the impact of reduced access on consumption is unclear. This study was designed to identify student, environmental, or policy characteristics that modify the associations between school vending machine...

The potential health impacts of imposing large taxes on soda to improve population health have been of interest for over a decade. As estimates of the effects of existing soda taxes with low rates suggest little health improvements, recent proposals suggest that large taxes may be effective in reducing weight because of non-linear consumption responses or threshold effects. This paper tests thi...

Globally, soda taxes are gaining momentum as powerful interventions to discourage sugar consumption and thereby reduce the growing burden of obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Evidence from early adopters including Mexico and Berkeley, California, confirms that soda taxes can disincentivize consumption through price increases and raise revenue to support government programs. The Unit...

Sarah A. Roache and Lawrence O. Gostin’s recent editorial comprehensively presents soda taxation rationales from a public health perspective. While we essentially agree that soda taxes are gaining momentum, this commentary expands upon the need for a better understanding of the policy processes underlying their development and implementation. Indeed, the umbrella concept of soda taxation actual...

Soda taxes aim to reduce excessive sugar consumption. Their effectiveness depends on whether they successfully target those whose consumption is associated with the highest harm. We assess the impact of soda taxes using novel longitudinal data on purchases on-the-go; we model the supply side of the market and find that pass-through is over 100%. We recover individual level responses, which we r...

Soda taxes aim to reduce externalities (including costs to the consumer themselves in the future) from excess sugar consumption. Their effectiveness depends on how consumers respond, and crucially how demand responsiveness correlates with marginal harm. We estimate demand using novel longitudinal data, which allows us to identify individual preference parameters. We study demand for drinks on-t...