Demand effects of unilateral versus industry-wide sugar reduction scenarios
研究了德国儿童麦片行业单边减糖与全行业同步减糖对销量、糖摄入量和消费者福利的不同影响，发现全行业减糖更有效且对厂商销售损害更小。
Voluntary food reformulation agreements may often be ineffective due to a lack of industry compliance. This paper examines demand responses and resulting (dis)incentives for companies to reduce the sugar content of children’s cereals in Germany. We estimate the effects of sugar content on consumer choices using a random-coefficient logit model. Subsequently, we simulate how simultaneous and unilateral sugar reductions affect sales, sugar quantities purchased, and consumer welfare. The results identify simultaneous sugar reduction as being most effective in reducing sugar uptake and less harmful to firms’ sales compared to unilateral reformulation. Product reformulation is not strongly compromised by substitution behaviour.