IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v234y2024ics0165176523005335.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Soda taxes, consumption, and health outcomes for high school students

Author

Listed:
  • Flynn, James

Abstract

This paper uses new data from the Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System (YRBS) survey to assess whether the sugar-sweetened beverage taxes passed in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Oakland have led to health improvements among high school students in these cities. I find that students in Philadelphia reduced their consumption by over one soda per week and that this reduction has remained constant or even grown over the first four years since the tax was implemented. I estimate that average BMI went down by 1.3% by 2021 across the three cities and that these effects are larger among female and non-white students.

Suggested Citation

  • Flynn, James, 2024. "Soda taxes, consumption, and health outcomes for high school students," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:234:y:2024:i:c:s0165176523005335
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111507
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176523005335
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111507?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Cawley & David Frisvold & Anna Hill & David Jones, 2020. "The Impact of the Philadelphia Beverage Tax on Prices and Product Availability," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(3), pages 605-628, June.
    2. John Cawley & Michael Daly & Rebecca Thornton, 2022. "The effect of beverage taxes on youth consumption and body mass index: Evidence from Mauritius," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(6), pages 1033-1045, June.
    3. Pierre Dubois & Rachel Griffith & Martin O'Connell, 2020. "How Well Targeted Are Soda Taxes?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(11), pages 3661-3704, November.
    4. James Flynn, 2023. "Do sugar‐sweetened beverage taxes improve public health for high school aged adolescents?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(1), pages 47-64, January.
    5. Lynn D Silver & Shu Wen Ng & Suzanne Ryan-Ibarra & Lindsey Smith Taillie & Marta Induni & Donna R Miles & Jennifer M Poti & Barry M Popkin, 2017. "Changes in prices, sales, consumer spending, and beverage consumption one year after a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages in Berkeley, California, US: A before-and-after study," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-19, April.
    6. John Cawley & David Frisvold & David Jones & Chelsea Lensing, 2021. "The Pass‐Through of a Tax on Sugar‐Sweetened Beverages in Boulder, Colorado," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(3), pages 987-1005, May.
    7. Leider, Julien & Powell, Lisa M., 2022. "Longer-term impacts of the Oakland, California, sugar-sweetened beverage tax on prices and volume sold at two-years post-tax," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    8. Powell, Lisa M. & Leider, Julien, 2020. "The impact of Seattle’s Sweetened Beverage Tax on beverage prices and volume sold," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    9. Yichen Zhong & Amy H. Auchincloss & Brian K. Lee & Ryan M. McKenna & Brent A. Langellier, 2020. "Sugar-Sweetened and Diet Beverage Consumption in Philadelphia One Year after the Beverage Tax," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-12, February.
    10. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cawley, John & Frisvold, David, 2023. "Review: Taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages: Political economy, and effects on prices, purchases, and consumption," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    2. Leider, Julien & Powell, Lisa M., 2022. "Longer-term impacts of the Oakland, California, sugar-sweetened beverage tax on prices and volume sold at two-years post-tax," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    3. James Flynn, 2023. "Do sugar‐sweetened beverage taxes improve public health for high school aged adolescents?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(1), pages 47-64, January.
    4. Jones-Smith, Jessica C. & Pinero Walkinshaw, Lina & Oddo, Vanessa M. & Knox, Melissa & Neuhouser, Marian L. & Hurvitz, Philip M. & Saelens, Brian E. & Chan, Nadine, 2020. "Impact of a sweetened beverage tax on beverage prices in Seattle, WA," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    5. Pourya Valizadeh & Shu Wen Ng, 2021. "Would A National Sugar‐Sweetened Beverage Tax in the United States Be Well Targeted?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(3), pages 961-986, May.
    6. Melissa A. Knox & Jessica C. Jones‐Smith, 2025. "Consumption responses to sweetened beverage taxes by household income in four U.S. cities," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(1), pages 154-174, January.
    7. Zhen, Chen & Chen, Yu & Lin, Biing-Hwan & Karns, Shawn & Mancino, Lisa & Ver Ploeg, Michele, 2021. "Do Obese and Nonobese Consumers Respond Differently to Price Changes? Implications of Preference Heterogeneity for Using Food Taxes and Subsidies to Reduce Obesity," MPRA Paper 112697, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Cengiz, Ezgi & Cengiz, Doruk, 2020. "The Impacts of Soda Taxes in U.S. Localities," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304351, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Pierre Thomas Léger & Lisa M. Powell, 2021. "The impact of the Oakland SSB tax on prices and volume sold: A study of intended and unintended consequences," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(8), pages 1745-1771, August.
    10. Neuhofer, Zachary & McFadden, Brandon R. & Rihn, Alicia & Wei, Xuan & Khachatryan, Hayk & House, Lisa, 2020. "Can the updated nutrition facts label decrease sugar-sweetened beverage consumption?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    11. Hunt Allcott & Benjamin B Lockwood & Dmitry Taubinsky, 2019. "Regressive Sin Taxes, with an Application to the Optimal Soda Tax," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(3), pages 1557-1626.
    12. Yichen Zhong & Amy H. Auchincloss & Brian K. Lee & Ryan M. McKenna & Brent A. Langellier, 2020. "Sugar-Sweetened and Diet Beverage Consumption in Philadelphia One Year after the Beverage Tax," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-12, February.
    13. Martin O'Connell & Kate Smith, 2024. "Optimal Sin Taxation and Market Power," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 34-70, October.
    14. Andrew T. Ching & Daniel Goetz, 2024. "Consumption Responses to an Unpopular Policy: Evidence from a Short-Lived Soda Tax," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(6), pages 1204-1225, November.
    15. Brendon McConnell, 2023. "What's Logs Got to do With it: On the Perils of log Dependent Variables and Difference-in-Differences," Papers 2308.00167, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2023.
    16. Powell, Lisa M. & Leider, Julien & Léger, Pierre Thomas, 2020. "The impact of the Cook County, IL, Sweetened Beverage Tax on beverage prices," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    17. Zhai, Tianchang & Li, Lei & Wang, Jingjing & Si, Wei, 2022. "Will the consumption tax on sugar-sweetened beverages help promote healthy beverage consumption? Evidence from urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    18. Goncalves, Judite & Merenda, Roxanne & dos Santos, João Pereira, 2022. "Not so sweet: The impact of the Portuguese soda tax on producers," Ruhr Economic Papers 938, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    19. Pierre Dubois & Rachel Griffith & Martin O'Connell, 2020. "How Well Targeted Are Soda Taxes?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(11), pages 3661-3704, November.
    20. Flynn, James & Gruber, Anja, 2025. "Soda Taxes, BMI and Obesity: Evidence from Seattle," IZA Discussion Papers 17617, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Soda tax; Health behavior; Taxation; Obesity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • H3 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:234:y:2024:i:c:s0165176523005335. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.