Price elasticity of the demand for soft drinks, other sugar-sweetened beverages and energy dense food in Chile

Chile is the second world's largest per capita consumer of caloric beverages. Caloric beverages are associated with overweight, obesity and other chronic diseases. The of this study is to estimate the price elasticity of demand for soft drinks, other sugar-sweetened beverages and high-energy de...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: GUERRERO LOPEZ, CARLOS MANUEL
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:México
Institución:Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública
Repositorio:Repositorio Institucional Abierto de Conocimiento en Salud Pública
Idioma:español
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.insp.mx:20.500.12096/7863
Acceso en línea:https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12889-017-4098-x
https://www.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4098-x
http://repositorio.insp.mx:8080/jspui/handle/20.500.12096/7863
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:EpidemiologyPublic Health,Chile, High energy density foods Price elasticity Soft drinks Sugar sweetened beverages
info:eu-repo/classification/cti/3
Descripción
Sumario:Chile is the second world's largest per capita consumer of caloric beverages. Caloric beverages are associated with overweight, obesity and other chronic diseases. The of this study is to estimate the price elasticity of demand for soft drinks, other sugar-sweetened beverages and high-energy dense foods in urban areas in Chile in order to evaluate the potential response of households' consumption to changes in prices. METHODS: We used microdata from the VII Family Budget Survey 2012-2013, which collects information on expenditures made by Chilean urban households on items such as beverages and foods. We estimated a Linear Approximation of an Almost Ideal Demand System Model to derive own and cross price elasticities of milk, coffee, tea and other infusions, plain water, soft drinks, other flavored beverages, sweet snacks, sugar and honey, and desserts. We considered the censored nature of the data and included the Inverse Mills Ratio in each equation of the demand system. We estimated a Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System and a two-part model as sensitivity analysis. RESULTS: We found an own price-elasticity of -1.37 for soft drinks. This implies that a price increase of 10% is associated with a reduction in consumption of 13.7%. We found that the rest of food and beverages included in the demand system behave as substitutes for soft drinks. For instance, plain water showed a cross-price elasticity of 0.63: a 10% increase in price of soft drinks could lead to an increase of 6.3% of plain water. Own and cross price elasticities were similar between models. CONCLUSIONS: The demand of soft drinks is price sensitive among Chilean households. An incentive system such as subsidies to non-sweetened beverages and tax to soft drinks could lead to increases in the substitutions for other healthier beverages.