Soda taxes, consumption, and health outcomes for high school students

Abstract

This paper uses new data from the Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System (YRBS) survey to assess whether the sugar-sweetened beverage taxes passed in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Oakland have led to health improvements among high school students in these cities. I find that students in Philadelphia reduced their consumption by over one soda per week and that this reduction has remained constant or even grown over the first four years since the tax was implemented. I estimate that average BMI went down by 1.3% by 2021 across the three cities and that these effects are larger among female and non-white students.