Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
信息的税收等价效应：来自含糖饮料激励实验室实验的证据
The Tax‐Equivalent Effect of Information: Evidence From an Incentivised Laboratory Experiment on Sugary Drinks
摘要
Interventions to reduce consumption of sugar‐sweetened beverages have been a popular topic of research in agricultural economics and food policy in recent years. While most empirical attention has focused on excise taxation and quasi‐experimental evaluation of implemented taxes, less is known about the magnitude of behavioural responses to information‐based interventions under incentive‐compatible conditions. We report results from an incentivised laboratory experiment conducted in New Zealand in which participants made repeated beverage purchase decisions with real economic consequences. After five purchase rounds across multiple price regimes, subjects were exposed to a salient health‐information intervention and then repeated the same decisions. The information intervention reduced the unconditional quantity purchased by approximately 25% (except for one sugar‐free variant). Comparing these effects to experimentally induced price changes implies a tax‐equivalent magnitude similar to a specific excise of roughly 50 cents per litre; given the experimental design, this should be interpreted as an upper‐bound estimate of the immediate response to a highly salient information intervention under laboratory conditions.
中文摘要
近年来，减少含糖饮料消费的干预措施一直是农业经济学和食品政策研究的热门话题。尽管大多数实证研究关注的是消费税以及对已实施税收的准实验评估，但人们对在激励相容条件下基于信息的干预措施所引发行为反应的幅度知之甚少。我们报告了在新西兰开展的一项激励性实验室实验结果，参与者在实验中做出具有真实经济后果的重复饮料购买决策。在经历多个价格机制下的五轮购买后，受试者接受了一项显著的健康信息干预，随后重复了相同的决策。该信息干预使无条件购买量减少了约25%（一种无糖变体除外）。将这些效应与实验诱导的价格变化进行比较，意味着其税收等价幅度类似于每升约50美分的从量消费税；鉴于实验设计，这应被解释为在实验室条件下对高度显著的信息干预即时反应的上限估计。