(ConservativeFreePress.com) – On Friday, a new study revealed that the sales of sugar drinks had dropped by around one-third in several U.S. cities following the introduction of a tax on these products.
Soda taxes have helped drive up the price of sugar-sweetened beverages and have led to an overall decline in sales. The study was published in the JAMA Health Forum journal and points out that the policymaker’s approach had been effective in reducing the sugar consumption of consumers. However, the beverage industry continues to oppose these taxes.
The study looks at five U.S. cities, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland in California, and Boulder in Colorado. The tax amounts ranged from 1 to 2 cents per ounce in the cities that introduced a tax, which meant that a 2-liter soda bottle could have an increase of as much as $1.36.
This particular study differed from previous studies that had compared one taxed city and one control city with no taxes, as it analyzed the composite effect of the soda taxes on multiple cities to determine the effect of what could happen when these soda taxes are more widespread. Scott Kaplan, the lead author of the study and a U.S. Naval Academy economics professor pointed out that in the study it was found that these taxes led to a consistent decline in the soda purchases across all U.S. cities that imposed a tax.
He added that the shelf prices of SSB products were also seen to have an average increase of 33.1 percent in the years after the tax was implemented.
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