Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
自上而下与自下而上信息促进糖税：提升税收效力的综合方法
Facilitating sugar taxes with top‐down and bottom‐up information: A combined approach for improved tax efficacy
摘要
With the widespread adoption of sugar‐sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes, top‐down facilitation measures—designed to influence consumer tax cognition—have limited impact, even though they are widely promoted as a means of enhancing tax effectiveness. This study introduces a bottom‐up facilitation approach that targets immediate and direct information available to consumers. We examine how these two types of facilitation measures jointly affect tax policy efficacy. Results indicate that top‐down measures, such as public health education campaigns, do not significantly reduce SSB purchases when implemented alone. However, when combined with bottom‐up measures—such as displaying the specific tax amount on product labels—the tax's effectiveness increases substantially. In addition, a difference‐in‐differences style analysis reveals that the combination of top‐down and bottom‐up facilitation measures significantly reduces consumer willingness to purchase SSBs and helps mitigate reactance observed under top‐down‐only conditions, particularly among consumers who are more likely to ignore or discount the top‐down educational information about the SSB tax. These findings provide actionable insights into how the design of public health taxation—such as SSB taxes—can be optimized to strengthen behavioral responses and enhance policy outcomes.
中文摘要
随着含糖饮料（SSB）税收政策的广泛实施，旨在影响消费者税收认知的“自上而下”促进措施——尽管被广泛宣传为提升税收有效性的手段——实际效果有限。本研究引入了一种针对消费者即时直接信息的“自下而上”促进方法，考察这两类促进措施如何共同影响税收政策效能。结果表明，单独实施公共卫生教育宣传等自上而下措施时，并未显著减少含糖饮料购买行为。然而，当与在产品标签上显示具体税额等自下而上措施结合使用时，税收有效性大幅提升。此外，基于双重差分法的分析显示，自上而下与自下而上促进措施的组合能显著降低消费者购买含糖饮料的意愿，并有助于缓解仅在自上而下条件下观察到的消费者逆反心理——尤其对更易忽视或低估含糖饮料税自上而下教育信息的消费者群体效果显著。这些发现为优化含糖饮料税等公共卫生税收政策设计、强化行为响应及提升政策成效提供了可操作的见解。