Effects of Sweetened Beverage Taxes in Philadelphia and Oakland
Published in Mathematica, October 21st
Almost a year after Philadelphia and Oakland implemented taxes on sweetened beverages, purchases of sweetened beverages declined, but evidence also suggests that some city residents shopped more outside of the cities. Consumption did not decline significantly overall in Philadelphia or Oakland, but there is more evidence of reduced consumption in Philadelphia, particularly among certain groups.
With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, researchers from Mathematica, the University of Iowa, and Cornell University collected and analyzed data from the periods shortly before and 11 months after beverage taxes went into effect in Oakland and Philadelphia.
A new Mathematica issue brief released this week synthesizes new and recent evidence on how the two cities’ beverage taxes affected purchases, consumption, and the retail environment. It also reports new findings from consumer receipt data of beverage purchases in Oakland, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle.
