FAO Agricultural Development Economics Policy Brief, No. 36.

This policy brief analyses in which ways and to what extent sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) taxes trigger reduced consumption. The potential signaling effect of a SSBs tax introduced in Catalonia, Spain, was studied. To do so, a questionnaire was distributed in November 2019 in two neighbourhoods from Barcelona with different mean income levels. Associations between variables constructed from the questionnaire and their relation with declared reduced consumption were explored. The brief intends to disentangle the different influences of price and signaling effect on the reduction of SSBs’ consumption, analyzing the results based on socio-demographic characteristics and providing policy implications of the findings.

The findings of this brief summarize the FAO Agricultural Development Economics Working Paper 21-05 Fiscal policies to fight malnutrition – An analysis of the sugar-sweetened beverages tax in Catalonia, Spain (available at https://doi.org/10.4060/cb4176en).