Working Paper Series no. 415: The impact of a `soda tax' on prices. Evidence from French micro data

Abstract

Based on an original data set of more than 500,000 non-alcoholic beverage price records, we evaluate the impact on consumer prices of the ‘soda tax’, an excise on drinks with added sugar or sweetener, introduced in January 2012 in France. We adopt a difference in differences approach and find that the tax was gradually passed through. 6 month after its introduction the tax was fully shifted to soda prices and almost fully shifted to prices of fruit drinks, while the pass-through for flavored waters was incomplete. We also find that the pass-through was heterogeneous across brands and retailing groups.

Nicoletta Berardi, Patrick Sevestre, Marine Tepaut and Alexandre Vigneron
December 2012

Classification JEL : C31, D22, H22, L81

Keywords : Excise tax, beverage, added sugar, tax incidence, price adjustment.