The Unintended Consequences of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Taxes on Sales and Prices of Beer Beverages

Speaker: ZHEN Xiaoyong

Venue: 9-301, Chenjun Court, Zijingang Campus 

Abstract: This paper examines the causal impact of Berkeley’s sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax on beer purchases and prices using scanner data from 2014–2015. Employing both synthetic control and difference-in-differences (DID) methods, we find that the tax led to an 11% decrease in beer purchases, with no significant change in beer prices. These results are robust across multiple specifications. Medium-run analysis shows that the decline in beer purchases intensified over time, reaching 21.4% by 2019, suggesting habit formation. These results demonstrate that SSB taxes can generate unintended spillover effects on other consumption behaviors with meaningful public health implications.