Sugar tax

SUGAR TAX CONSUMPTION AND SPENDING
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Sugar Tax Consumption and Spending
There has been a lot of debate on whether or not sugar should be subjected to tax or not. While taxing sugar, the effect will not only be felt by sugar products but also on the consumer. Consumers will be affected by the way they consume as well as spend on sugar products. The research will be conducted to examine the effect of taxing sugar on consumption and spending patterns of consumers.
One would wonder why the sudden concern about taxing sugar products. Recently, there has been a rise in cases such as obesity which has been directly linked to increased intake in sugar products (Lin et al. 2010, 2). Keeping this in mind, various suggestions have been made in order to reduce the intake level of sugar products among consumers. One way for reducing the consumption and spending levels in consumers is by taxing sugar products. There is a direct link between taxing sugar products to consumption and spending rates in consumers. Basically, a change in the tax in any given product will subsequently change the saving habits which will, in turn, affect the spending and consumption of sugar products (Steindel 2001, 2). It is expected that by increasing the tax, spending and consumption of sugar products will decrease while consumption in other healthy product will increase (Falbe et al. 2016, 1865).
The research will make use of surveys as well as questionnaires.

A total of 200 adolescents will be used in the survey to get their views on the matter at hand. The question will be based on the consumer’s sugar intake level at present and how the tax will change their behaviour towards spending and consuming sugar products. Some of the questions that participants will be expected to be asked include:
What is your current expenditure on sugar products?
How will change the expenditure when the price of sugar is increased by 25%?
The results will be assessed and used to decide whether to tax or not.
Reference List
Falbe, J. et al., 2016. Impact of the Berkeley excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverage consumption. American Journal of Public Health, 106(10), pp.1865-1871.
Lin, B.H. et al., 2010. The effects of a sugar-sweetened beverage tax: Consumption, calorieintake, obesity, and tax burden by income. In Agricultural & Applied Economics Association Meeting.
Steindel, C., 2001. The effect of tax changes on consumer spending. Current Issues in Economics and Finance, 7 (11), pp. 1-6