讲座时间：2022年6月23日 9：00-10：30

讲座地点: 腾讯会议 517 502 806

主讲人：王凌霄（威斯康辛大学麦迪逊分校）

讲座题目：The Dilemma of Soda Sales Taxes: Taxation on Soda Except for Participants of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

讲座简介：Soda sales taxes are adopted by 34 states in the U.S. to reduce the increasing rates of type 2 diabetes and obesity among the population with low socioeconomic status (SES). Most low-SES households are sheltered by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) which exempts sales taxes, resulting in the dilemma of soda sales taxes. We use the general border method and explore an innovative estimator that captures the causal impacts of soda sales taxes on soda purchases among different household types. With the newly-collected dataset of soda sales tax rates merged with the Nielsen Homescan Panel, we find that soda sales taxes significantly reduce soda expenditure and unit purchases but have no effect on volume consumption. Evidence shows that soda sales taxes are salient to SNAP participating households because these households shift their soda purchase to SNAP benefits to avoid soda sales taxes. Alternatively, soda excise taxes effectively solve the dilemma, but these taxes do not significantly impact the overall population, giving rise to equity concerns.

主讲人介绍：I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate of the Wisconsin National Data Consortium (WiNDC) in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.I received a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of Kentucky (2021), an MS in economics from Ocean University of China, a BS in economics from Central China Normal University, and a BA in philosophy (minor) from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. In 2016, I visited the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration in Romania as an exchange Master's student. In 2020, I explored my Ph.D. dissertation at Cornell University as a visiting researcher.My research focuses on how agricultural policy shapes consumer behaviors and agricultural markets in the short term and long-term individual health outcomes by using causal inference methods and subtle study designs. In my Ph.D. dissertation, I investigate how grocery sales taxes affect food consumption and bodyweight. My other research covers tobacco, beer, and meat-alternative markets emphasizing how consumers react to the policy and environmental changes. After joining WiNDC, I am also interested in applying computable general equilibrium (CGE) modeling in agricultural policy impact analysis.