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The impact of taxation and signposting on diet: an online field study with breakfast cereals and soft drinks

Posted on 5 June 2016

CHE's latest Research Paper 131 written by Daniel John Zizzo, Melanie Parravano, Ryota Nakamura, Suzanna Forwood and Marc Suhrcke

Cereal

We present a large scale study where a nationally representative sample of 1,000 participants were asked to make real purchases within an online supermarket platform. The study captured the effectof price changes, and of the signposting of such changes, for breakfast cereals and soft drinks. We find that such taxes are an effective means of altering food purchasing, with a 20% rate being sufficient to make a significant impact. Signposting represents a complementary nudge policy that could enhance the impact of the tax without imposing severe welfare loss, though the effectiveness may depend on the product category.

Read more about how tax could cut consumption of sugary cereals and drinks​ here

Full report: CHE Research Paper 131 (PDF , 2,256kb)

Press release issued by Newcastle University

Other papers in the CHE Research paper series can be found at: In house publications