Do School Junk Food Bans Improve Student Health?: Evidence from Canada

Six Canadian provinces have banned the sale of junk food on school property to address child health issues such as obesity. Differences in the timing of the introduction of provincial policies provide variation in treatment across provinces, and variation within provinces comes from differences across students in the number of years of schooling during which junk food was banned. Using data from cycles of the Canadian Community Health Survey, I find that each year of a junk food ban is associated with a decline of about 0.05 body mass index. Students exposed to five or more years of a junk food ban had lower body mass index equivalent to a decrease of about two pounds for an individual who is five feet, six inches tall.