Nudging Nutrition: Lessons from the Danish "Fat Tax"
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2023
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| _version_ | 1866912119094509568 |
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| author | Dahl, Christian Møller Hoff, Nadja van 't Mellace, Giovanni Smed, Sinne |
| author_facet | Dahl, Christian Møller Hoff, Nadja van 't Mellace, Giovanni Smed, Sinne |
| contents | In October 2011, Denmark introduced the world's first and, to date, only tax targeting saturated fat. However, this tax was subsequently abolished in January 2013. Leveraging exogenous variation from untaxed Northern-German consumers, we employ a difference-in-differences approach to estimate the causal effects of both the implementation and repeal of the tax on consumption and expenditure behavior across eight product categories targeted by the tax. Our findings reveal significant heterogeneity in the tax's impact across these products. During the taxed period, there was a notable decline in consumption of bacon, liver sausage, and cheese, particularly among low-income households. In contrast, expenditure on butter, cream, and margarine increased as prices rose. Interestingly, we do not observe any difference in expenditure increases between high and low-income households, suggesting that the latter were disproportionately affected by the tax. After the repeal of the tax, we do not observe any significant decline in consumption. On the contrary, there was an overall increase in consumption for certain products, prompting concerns about unintended consequences resulting from the brief implementation of the tax. Finally, we find strong evidence on an overall increase purchases of butter abroad for households living less than 50 km from the German boarder but we do not find strong evidence of spatial heterogeneous effects of the tax. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2312_11481 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Nudging Nutrition: Lessons from the Danish "Fat Tax" Dahl, Christian Møller Hoff, Nadja van 't Mellace, Giovanni Smed, Sinne General Economics Economics In October 2011, Denmark introduced the world's first and, to date, only tax targeting saturated fat. However, this tax was subsequently abolished in January 2013. Leveraging exogenous variation from untaxed Northern-German consumers, we employ a difference-in-differences approach to estimate the causal effects of both the implementation and repeal of the tax on consumption and expenditure behavior across eight product categories targeted by the tax. Our findings reveal significant heterogeneity in the tax's impact across these products. During the taxed period, there was a notable decline in consumption of bacon, liver sausage, and cheese, particularly among low-income households. In contrast, expenditure on butter, cream, and margarine increased as prices rose. Interestingly, we do not observe any difference in expenditure increases between high and low-income households, suggesting that the latter were disproportionately affected by the tax. After the repeal of the tax, we do not observe any significant decline in consumption. On the contrary, there was an overall increase in consumption for certain products, prompting concerns about unintended consequences resulting from the brief implementation of the tax. Finally, we find strong evidence on an overall increase purchases of butter abroad for households living less than 50 km from the German boarder but we do not find strong evidence of spatial heterogeneous effects of the tax. |
| title | Nudging Nutrition: Lessons from the Danish "Fat Tax" |
| topic | General Economics Economics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.11481 |