Cash transfers and temptation goods: An analysis on the impact of cash transfers on poor households’ consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages in the Philippines

Sugar intake has been increasing globally and locally for individuals. Meanwhile, Philippine institutions continue to provide cash transfers (CTs) to poor households. Past literature found varying results of the impact of transfers on expenditure, consumption, and temptation goods. Most studies focused on alcohol and tobacco consumption and neglected the impact of cash transfers on the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). Thus, this paper used propensity score matching and average treatment effects on the treated (ATET) evaluation method to compare the consumption of poor households with transfers to their consumption if they had not received cash transfers and determine the characteristics of households who were likely to receive transfers. The likelihood of poor households receiving CTs were significantly affected by some of the household head’s characteristics (age, educational attainment, and class of worker), household characteristics (household type, number of children below 18 years old, salaries and wages, and region of residence), and household facilities (water source, type of toilet facility, and type of roof). CTs were found to significantly decrease soft drinks consumption but did not significantly affect consumption of other SSBs. Policy responses related to increasing awareness of the health effects of these drinks like requiring warning labels, monitoring advertisements, and imposing restrictions on the amount of sugar added are highly recommended to decrease consumption of the said beverages.