The effect of beverage taxes on youth consumption and body mass index: Evidence from Mauritius

Abstract

In response to the rising prevalence of obesity worldwide, there are increasing efforts to implement fiscal policies to promote healthy diets and prevent non-communicable disease (Teng et al., 2019; WHO, 2015; World Bank, 2020). An important trend is the taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), a category that includes sodas, colas, sports drinks, energy drinks, and sweetened juice drinks. Taxes on SSBs have been adopted by numerous countries worldwide, as well as in numerous U.S. cities. 1 Economists view these types of taxes as a way to internalize the external costs of obesity and diabetes (to which SSBs are seen to contribute) and address the internal costs of excessive consumption due to factors such as limited self-control and time-inconsistent preferences (see, e.g., Allcott et al., 2019;Teng et al., 2019; World Bank, 2020). 2 Most of the taxes on SSBs have been implemented in the past decade, and thus there is incomplete evidence about their effects.This paper studies the impact of a tax on SSBs that was imposed in the island country of Mauritius on January 1, 2013. Using data on adolescents from the Global School-Based Student Health Survey (GSHS), we estimate

Not so sweet: Impacts of a soda tax on producers

“…Other outlets like wholesalers, restaurants and bars, or vending machines -put differently, out-of-home soda consumption-, have largely been ignored (Cornelsen & Smith, 2018), even though in-home and out-of-home soda consumption can potentially respond very differently to soda taxes (Law et al, 2022). The fewer studies that are not limited to retail sales either rely on survey data on all purchases/soda intake (Cawley et al, 2022;Colchero et al, 2017), or use macro level data, relying solely on time variations (Alsukait et al 2020;Arteaga et al, 2021). Overall, most studies nd that soda taxes reduce SSB consumption, including in Portugal (Gonçalves and Pereira dos Santos, 2020).…”

Are intentions to change, policy awareness, or health knowledge related to changes in dietary intake following a sugar-sweetened beverage tax in South Africa? A before-and-after study

“…The clearest examples of sugar-based national SSB tax structures are from the United Kingdom’s threshold-based multi-tiered SSB levy [ 13 ], South Africa’s HPL, and Mauritius [ 14 ]. Evaluations have found reductions in taxed beverage consumption post-tax, leading to fewer calories and grams of sugar consumed per capita.…”

“…In the United Kingdom, the greatest changes in sugar content of beverage purchases were due to reformulation, with a reduction of 30% but only 4% without accounting for reformulation [ 15 ]. In Mauritius, the young male consumers of SSBs fell 11% [ 14 ]. In South Africa, taxed beverage purchases decreased 33% in lower and middle income and 20% in higher income populations [ 16 ].…”