ASA Marketing Section's next zoom seminar talk will be on Tuesday (November 18 at 9PM Eastern Time). Please feel free to attend if you are interested. Below are the details.
Speaker: Dinesh Puranam, Muma College of Business, University of South Florida
Title: Got Chocolate Milk? The Effect of Flavored Milk Ban in Los Angeles on Retail Beverage Consumption
Time & Date: 9pm-10pm Eastern Time, 18th November
Zoom link: https://iu.zoom.us/j/88145043594
Abstract: Do targeted school nutrition bans generate spillover effects on retail purchases that reinforce or undermine their intended health objectives? We investigate this question by examining the 2011 flavored milk ban implemented by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Using Nielsen retail scanner data and synthetic control methods, we estimate the spillover effects of this flavored milk ban on retail beverage purchases outside schools. We address three key questions: First, does the ban change retail purchases of the flavored milk? Second, do these effects vary across demographic groups and usage intensity? And third, does the ban generate unintended product substitution toward other beverages? Our results show that the ban reduces flavored milk purchases by 11.71% within LAUSD boundaries, suggesting policy reinforcement. The effect is more pronounced in lower-income areas and stores with lower flavored milk baseline share. The ban does not significantly affect plain milk or soda consumption but led to a temporary 4.30% increase in juice purchases. While the decline in flavored milk supports the policy's objective, the increase in juice consumption partly offsets the expected sugar reduction, and protein intake falls by 4.8%, revealing complex nutritional trade-offs. Additional analyses show effects were driven by negative publicity rather than product displacement.
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Gourab Mukherjee
Associate Professor
University of Southern California
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