Scott Kaplan

Or ChatGPT…

New #HealthAffairsForefront policy piece today on designing (more) effective sugar-sweetened beverage taxes. Sofia and I discuss tax avoidance behavior and designing taxes directly targeting the harm-generating ingredient.

healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/improve-sugar-sweetened-beverage-taxes

Happy hoops day 🏀🏀

I think I would’ve correctly guessed 3/5 (already saw mine before your post). The two I wouldn’t have guessed were ones where I think I listened to them very frequently but only for a relatively short period of time during the year.

For those at #2024APPAM and interested in tax and other pricing policies for unhealthy products, there is a great lineup of presenters and discussants on Saturday at 10:15 in National Harbor 15. Hope to see you there (or around the conference in general)!

Post a picture you took (no description) to bring some zen to the timeline

Excited to share @justinwhite.bsky.social and I’s latest working paper! “Taxing Volume, Targeting Sugar: A Framework and Empirical Assessment of Excise Taxes on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages."

Link to full paper: drive.google.com/file/d/151Cp...

Comments are welcome and appreciated.

Abstract 👇

🚨 Call for Papers 🚨

The Liberal Arts Colleges Public and Labor Economics Virtual Seminar is starting Spring 2024! First Friday of every month from 12:30-1:30 pm ET.

Submit your extended abstracts by March 1: forms.gle/Z6uAv4GaGyjk...

For more information: drive.google.com/file/d/1PFZD...

Check out the full paper for additional details regarding our findings, data and methods, and limitations.

Since the paper was published a few weeks ago, it has been featured on @npr.org and in pieces by CNN, US News and World Report, the Chicago Booth Review, and Food Fix, among others.

NPR Link: www.npr.org/sections/hea...

Several other studies find that even a 15-20% decrease in SSB consumption can generate significant health benefits and are highly cost-effective in reducing societal healthcare expenditures. Estimates range from $30-50 billion nationally over an average individual lifetime.

Our estimates generally support prior estimates from single-city studies; compared to a recent international meta-analysis, our results suggest slightly higher pass-through, a larger reduction in volume purchased, and moderately less demand-responsiveness to price changes.

We also find no impacts of these taxes on cross-border purchasing of SSBs. It should be noted that we examine 3-digit zip code level jurisdictions, which are relatively large.

This next figure is a range plot depicting both the composite and individual city results (which are somewhat underpowered).

These two figures show the main findings from the composite ASC estimation on SSB (1) shelf prices and (2) volume sales. Our results suggest a unit-elastic demand elasticity for SSBs. Our estimates for changes in shelf prices imply a 92% tax pass-through rate to consumers.

We use nationwide 3-digit zip-code level retail scanner data from Nielsen and the recently developed augmented synthetic control (ASC) method to examine the composite impact of SSB taxes in five large U.S. cities on SSB prices and volume purchased.

Unbiased estimation of a composite effect is critical for understanding the generalizability of tax impacts to different localities featuring heterogeneous characteristics; such an estimate is complementary to existing estimates from individual localities with SSB taxes in place.

Many studies have examined the impact of SSB taxes on prices and consumption. Yet, nearly all US SSB tax studies analyze a single taxed city compared with a control city, and the couple that examine multiple cities rely on conventional TWFE approaches that may suffer from bias.

SSBs are a major source of non-nutritional calories and added sugar, which is associated with serious adverse health outcomes. Nearly 100 countries now feature some sort of national excise tax on SSBs. 7 jurisdictions in the US currently have one in place.

Changes in Prices and Purchases Following Implementation of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Taxes Explore the latest in national and global health policy, including health care pricing, delivery, access, quality, safety, equity, and reform.

🚨 New paper published in JAMA Health Forum showing the broad effectiveness of sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes in the US! Co-authored with a great team: Justin White, Kristine Madsen, Sanjay Basu, Sofia Villas-Boas, and Dean Schillinger. 🚨

Link: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

If ASSA meetings could continue to happen in NBA cities, that would be great. #ASSA2024

Going to #ASSA2024 and interested in food & nutrition? Attend our AAEA-sponsored session titled "Evaluating the Medium- and Longer-Term Health and Economic Impacts of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Taxes" featuring 3 excellent papers + discussants! Fri 12:30-2:15pm in Hyatt Mission B. #EconSky