TY - JOUR
T1 - How do parents respond to regulation of sugary drinks in child care? Evidence from California
AU - Hu, Jiafei
AU - Megalokonomou, Rigissa
AU - Yuan, Haishan
N1 - Funding Information:
☆ This paper reports our own analyses calculated (or derived) based in part on data from the Nielsen Company (US), LLC and marketing databases provided through the Nielsen Datasets at the Kilts Center for Marketing Data Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. The conclusions drawn from the Nielsen data are ours and do not reflect the views of Nielsen. Nielsen is not responsible for, had no role in, and was not involved in analyzing and preparing the results reported herein. We do not have significant competing financial, professional, or personal interests that might have influenced the work described in this manuscript. We thank Cahit Guven, Jinhu Li, Lionel Page, Jing Zhang, participants at the Econometric Society Australasian Meeting 2019, and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Any errors are our own. Declarations of interest: none for all co-authors.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2020/10
Y1 - 2020/10
N2 - Excessive sugar intake is associated with higher risk for a range of diseases in children, including childhood obesity. To reduce sugar intake in children, California regulates the provision of sugar-sweetened beverages and juice by child care facilities. The regulation may reduce the consumption of beverages high in sugar in the short run and weaken their preferences for sugary drinks in the long run. Whether these objectives are achieved depends on how parents respond to the regulation by providing sugary drinks at home. Using detailed scanner data on grocery purchases, we find that affected California households increased their juice purchases right after the regulation became effective. However, this increase disappears after 1 year. Moreover, we do not find an increase in the purchases of sugary substitutes. Our findings suggest that parents provide more juice for their children after child care facilities limit their provision of sugary beverage, but such offsetting behavior disappears after 1 year. Regulating the consumption of sugary drinks in child care facilities may be an effective policy to lower children's preferences for sugary drinks.
AB - Excessive sugar intake is associated with higher risk for a range of diseases in children, including childhood obesity. To reduce sugar intake in children, California regulates the provision of sugar-sweetened beverages and juice by child care facilities. The regulation may reduce the consumption of beverages high in sugar in the short run and weaken their preferences for sugary drinks in the long run. Whether these objectives are achieved depends on how parents respond to the regulation by providing sugary drinks at home. Using detailed scanner data on grocery purchases, we find that affected California households increased their juice purchases right after the regulation became effective. However, this increase disappears after 1 year. Moreover, we do not find an increase in the purchases of sugary substitutes. Our findings suggest that parents provide more juice for their children after child care facilities limit their provision of sugary beverage, but such offsetting behavior disappears after 1 year. Regulating the consumption of sugary drinks in child care facilities may be an effective policy to lower children's preferences for sugary drinks.
KW - Child care regulation
KW - Children
KW - Health
KW - Obesity
KW - Sugary beverages
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85089821214&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jebo.2020.08.014
DO - 10.1016/j.jebo.2020.08.014
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85089821214
SN - 0167-2681
VL - 178
SP - 672
EP - 687
JO - Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
JF - Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
ER -
