Replication data for: Should We Tax Sugar-Sweetened Beverages? An Overview of Theory and Evidence

Taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages are growing in popularity and have generated an active public debate. Are they a good idea? If so, how high should they be? Are such taxes regressive? People in the United States and some other countries consume remarkable quantities of sugar-sweetened beverages, and the evidence suggests that this generates significant health costs. Building on recent work, we review the basic economic principles that determine the socially optimal sugar-sweetened beverage tax. The optimal tax depends on (1) externalities, or uninternalized health system costs from diseases caused by sugary drink consumption; (2) internalities, or costs consumers impose on themselves by consuming too many sugary drinks due to poor nutrition knowledge and/or lack of self-control; and (3) regressivity, or how much the financial burden and the internality benefits from the tax fall on the poor. We summarize the empirical evidence about the key parameters that determine how large the tax should be. Our calculations suggest that sugar-sweetened beverage taxes are welfare enhancing and indeed that the optimal sugar-sweetened beverage tax rate may be higher than the 1 cent per ounce rate most commonly used in US cities. We end with seven concrete suggestions for policymakers considering a sugar-sweetened beverage tax.

含糖饮料（sugar-sweetened beverages）税的认可度正逐步提升，同时引发了激烈的公共辩论：此类税收是否具备合理性？若可行，税率应设定在何种水平？这类税收是否具有累退性（regressivity）？美国及其他部分国家的民众消费着巨量含糖饮料，现有证据表明，此举会产生显著的健康成本。基于既往研究成果，本文梳理了决定社会最优含糖饮料税的基础经济学原理。最优税率取决于三大核心维度：（1）外部性（externality），即含糖饮料消费引发的疾病所带来的未内部化的医保系统成本；（2）内部性（internality），即消费者因营养知识匮乏或自控力不足，过度饮用含糖饮料而给自己造成的成本；（3）累退性（regressivity），即该税收带来的经济负担与内部性收益，在多大程度上由低收入群体承担。我们汇总了决定最优税率规模的核心参数相关的实证证据。我们的测算结果表明，含糖饮料税能够提升社会总福利，且最优含糖饮料税率或高于美国多数城市普遍采用的每盎司1美分标准。文末，我们针对考虑推行含糖饮料税的政策制定者提出了七条具体可行的建议。