Does Information About Calories Reduce Calorie Consumption?
Yes, according to a new NBER study by Bryan Bollinger, Phillip Leslie, and Alan Sorensen (h/t Eric Lawrence). Here is their paper, which has pretty straightforward implications for policy and Fat Politics:
We study the impact of mandatory calorie posting on consumers’ purchase decisions, using detailed data from Starbucks. We find that average calories per transaction falls by 6%. The effect is almost entirely related to changes in consumers’ food choices—there is almost no change in purchases of beverage calories. There is no impact on Starbucks profit on average, and for the subset of stores located close to their competitor Dunkin Donuts, the effect of calorie posting is actually to increase Starbucks revenue. Survey evidence and analysis of commuters suggest the mechanism for the effect is a combination of learning and salience.
Comments
This leaves open the question, however, of whether people are making up those calories later in the day or week.
Posted by: rosmar | January 25, 2010 12:59 PM
rosmar:
Yes we are!
Posted by: Tom | January 25, 2010 05:58 PM