TABLE 1.
Review of Evidence on Price Effects on Body Weight Outcomes
| Author | Outcome Measure | Price/Tax Measure (Source) | Data Set | Population | Model | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auld and Powell in press | BMI | Prices of fruits and vegetables and fast food (ACCRA) | Monitoring the Future Survey, 1997–2003 | Adolescents in 8th and 10th grade (n= 73,041) | Cross-sectional | Statistically significant association between fast-food prices (−0.03) and fruit and vegetable prices (0.02) and BMI. Larger effects found at higher BMI quantiles, e.g., for males and females, the fast-food price elasticities were −0.10 and −0.11, respectively, at the 90th quantile and the fruit and vegetable price elasticities were 0.05 and 0.06, respectively, at the 95th quantile. |
| Beydoun, Powell, and Wang 2008 | BMI and obesity | Prices of fruits and vegetables and fast food (ACCRA) | Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals, 1994–1996 | Adults aged 20 to 65 (n= 7,331) | Cross-sectional | No statistically significant association between fast-food prices and BMI or obesity. No statistically significant association between fruit and vegetable prices and obesity. Statistically significant fruit and vegetable price elasticity for BMI of −0.11. |
| Chou, Grossman, and Saffer 2004 | BMI and obesity | Full-service restaurant prices, fast-food restaurant prices, and prices of food at home (ACCRA) | Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System, 1984–1999 | Adults 18 years and older (n= 1,111,074) | Cross-sectional | Statistically significant full-service restaurant price elasticity for BMI (−0.021) and obesity (−0.667); statistically significant price of food at home for BMI (−0.039) and obesity (−0.622). Fast-food price elasticity for BMI (−0.048) and not statistically significant for obesity (−0.650). |
| Kim and Kawachi 2006 | State-level obesity prevalence | State-level taxes on soft drinks and snacks | Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System, 1991–1998 | State-level averages of adults | Cross-sectional | Compared with states with taxes, weak statistical evidence that states that had repealed a soft-drink or snack-food tax were 13 times more likely to have a high (> = 75 percentile in the relative increase) relative increase in obesity prevalence. No statistically significant differences in obesity between states with no taxes and those with a tax or with at least a 5% tax. |
| Miljkovic and Nganje 2008 | Overweight and obesity | Prices of sugar, potatoes, and whole milk (National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA) | Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System, 1991, 1997, and 2002 | Adults 18 years and older (n= 45,440) | Cross-sectional | Higher current price of sugar statistically significantly associated with lower probability of obesity, and higher prices of potatoes and milk statistically significantly associated with higher obesity prevalence (based on a myopic addiction model controlling historical prices). |
| Miljkovic, Nganje, and de Chastenet 2008 | Overweight and obesity | Prices of sugar, potatoes, and whole milk (National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA) | Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System, 1991, 1997, and 2002 | Adults 18 years and older (n= 55,550) | Cross-sectional | Higher current price of sugar and whole milk statistically significantly associated with lower probability of obesity, and higher price of potatoes statistically significantly associated with higher obesity prevalence (based on a rational addiction model of controlling historical and future prices). |
| Powell et al. 2007 | BMI and overweight | Prices of fruits and vegetables and fast food (ACCRA) | Monitoring the Future Survey, 1997–2003 | Adolescents in 8th and 10th grade (n= 72,854) | Cross-sectional | Statistically significant price of fast-food elasticity of BMI (−0.04) and overweight (−0.59). Price of fruits and vegetables is positively but not statistically significantly related to BMI and overweight. |
| Sturm and Datar 2005 | BMI changes | Price indices for meat, fruits and vegetables, dairy, and fast food (ACCRA) | Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, 1998–2002 | Children K through 3rd grade (n= 6,918) | Longitudinal | Increasing the price of fruits and vegetables by one standard deviation raised BMI by 0.11 BMI units by third grade (implied fruit and vegetable price elasticity for BMI of roughly 0.05). |
| Sturm and Datar 2008 | BMI changes | Price indices for meat, fruits and vegetables, dairy, and fast food (ACCRA) | Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, 1998–2004 | Children K through 5th grade (n= 4,557) | Longitudinal | Increasing the price of fruits and vegetables by one standard deviation raised BMI by 0.09 BMI units by third grade and 0.18 units by fifth grade. |