Dietary and Health Impacts of Nutrition Policies

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

State, local, and national governments have responding to the growing rates of obesity and diet-related disease by implementing policies designed to curb the consumption of less healthy foods. These policies can be economic, in the case of taxes on sweetened beverages and junk food, or informational, in the case of food labeling. The three papers in this session evaluate three such policies using quasi-experimental research designs in order to assess the causal impact of policy on health-related behaviors and outcomes. The papers use survey or administrative data to examine changes in outcomes over time among affected populations, relative to changes in the same outcomes for a comparison group unexposed to the policy in question.

Policy Area

• Health Policy

Chair

• Juan Agustin Echenique, New York University

Discussant

• Patrick Carlin, Washington State University

Organizer

• Melissa Knox, University of Washington

Individual Presentations

• Front-of-package food labeling policies and child nutrition: Evidence from Chile’s comprehensive food policy reform - Presenting Author: Agustina Laurito, University of Illinois, Chicago

• The Cook County Tax on Sweetened Beverages: The Purchase Impact of its Announcement, Implementation, and Repeal - Presenting Author: John Cawley, Syracuse University

• Using Electronic Health Records to Estimate the Impact of Seattle’s Sweetened Beverage Tax on Adult BMI - Presenting Author: Melissa Knox, University of Washington

• The Effect of Singapore’s Sugar-Sweetened-Beverage Advertising Ban on Product Entry - Presenting Author: Rajib Rahman, University of Massachusetts at Amherst