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RAND: Small Soda Tax Not Useful

By Jeremy Rosenberg
April 2, 2010
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A new RAND study released this week finds that adding a small tax to soda purchases isn't a health panacea.

Report authors Roland Sturm, Lisa M. Powell, Jamie F. Chriqui, and Frank J. Chaloupka don't dismiss the possibility that such taxes could help fight obesity, nor do they rule out that larger taxes would likewise help.

From the report's abstract, available here:

"We find that existing taxes on soda, which are typically not much higher than 4 percent in grocery stores, do not substantially affect overall levels of soda consumption or obesity rates. We do find, however, that subgroups of at-risk children--children who are already overweight, come from low-income families, or are African American--may be more sensitive than others to soda taxes, especially when soda is available at school. A greater impact of these small taxes could come from the dedication of the revenues they generate to other obesity prevention efforts rather than through their direct effect on consumption."

A press release about the report, with quotes from lead author Sturm, is here. And from Health Affairs Blog, comes news of similar findings in a recent Yale study.

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