The potential for using excise taxes to reduce smoking

Abstract

We examine the potential for reducing cigarette smoking through increases in cigarette excise taxes by estimating the price elasticity of demand for cigarettes. Using information on individual smoking behavior from the 1976 Health Interview Survey, we estimate the adult price elasticity of demand for cigarettes to be -0.42. We find that price has its greatest effect on the smoking behavior of young males and that it operates primarily on the decision to smoke rather than via adjustments in the quantity of cigarettes smoked. An excise tax increase would discourage smoking by successive cohorts of young adults, and those reduced smoking levels would be reflected in aggregate smoking as these cohorts mature.

State Expenditures for Tobacco-Control Programs and the Tobacco Settlement

“…Previous research has shown that excise-tax-induced price increases can independently reduce tobacco consumption. 25,26 However, when tobacco-producing states were excluded from the analysis, the inverse relation between smoking rates and funding of tobacco-control programs persisted, suggesting that state tobacco production is not the sole explanation for this finding.…”

Public Health Obesity-Related TV Advertising

“…[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]33,34 Importantly, however, recent research has suggested that the positive effect of state-sponsored anti-tobacco ads was manifest only at a threshold level of at least one unit of exposure over a 4-month period. 27 The implication of this threshold effect is that minimal levels of anti-tobacco advertising do not have a significant association with smoking-related outcomes.…”

“…[13][14][15] Research from tobacco control has shown that paid anti-tobacco advertising is associated with increased antitobacco attitudes and beliefs and reduced tobacco use. [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] To the extent that obesity reflects modifiable behaviors that have similarities with smoking-related behaviors, public health anti-obesity media campaigns promise to contribute to reductions in population obesity.…”

Randomized Trial of Reduced-Nicotine Standards for Cigarettes

“…Lewit and colleagues Lewit and Coate 1982;Grossman et al 1983) were the first to use individual-level data to examine the effects of prices and smoking prevention policies. Lewit and Coate (1982) used data on 19,288 persons aged 20-74 years who had participated in the 1976 National Health In terview Survey.…”