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Beverage taxes are increasingly being implemented as an intervention aimed at reducing the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and their associated adverse health outcomes. Whether these taxes achieve public health objectives depends, in part, on the extent to which beverage prices increase, known as tax pass-through. Fast-food restaurants are a significant source of SSBs and an environment where the effect of beverage taxes is less understood. This study evaluates the impact of an SSB tax on prices of beverage products sold in fast-food restaurants in Oakland, CA, which implemented a 1-cent per ounce excise tax on SSBs containing 25 or more calories per 12 fluid ounces in 2017. A pre-post intervention difference-in-differences (DID) research design with Sacramento, CA, serving as a comparison site was used to estimate the effect of the tax on fast-food restaurant beverage prices. A panel of fast-food restaurants were audited 1-month pre-tax and 6- and 12-months post-tax. DID regression models with restaurant and product fixed effects were used to estimate tax pass-through to prices of bottled regular (N = 150 observations from 39 restaurants) and diet (N = 106 observations from 32 restaurants) soda and fountain drinks (N = 501 observations from 73 restaurants). Statistically significant (p

Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption is associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. A number of U.S. jurisdictions have levied volume-based specific SSB taxes. This study estimated baseline mean SSB prices across categories and sizes as this will help to determine the percentage increase in price resulting from the imposition of specific taxes.Data on food store SSB prices were collected in 2017 in Cook County, IL, St. Louis City/County, MO, Oakland, CA, and Sacramento, CA (N = 11,767 product-level observations from 581 stores). Data were weighted to represent volume sold by category and size. Mean prices per ounce were computed across categories and sizes. Linear regression models, clustered on store, were run to estimate associations between price per ounce and product characteristics, neighborhood (linked by census tract) characteristics, store type, and site.Weighted summary statistics show that the mean price of SSBs was 4.8 cents/oz. Soda was least expensive (3.4 cents/oz), followed by sports drinks (4.8 cents/oz), juice drinks (5.2 cents/oz), ready-to-drink tea/coffee (7.8 cents/oz), and energy drinks (19.9 cents/oz). Prices were higher for individual-sized (9.6 cents/oz) compared to family-sized drinks (>1 L/multi-pack; 3.5 cents/oz). Regression results revealed that prices were lower in stores in majority non-Hispanic black tracts and varied by beverage characteristics and store type but not tract-level socioeconomic status.Given substantial variation in prices by SSB category, a penny-per-ounce SSB tax, if fully passed through, would increase soda prices by 29% versus 5% for energy drinks, highlighting the potential importance of different specific tax rates across beverage categories. Keywords: Sugar-sweetened beverages, Price, Sugar-sweetened beverage tax