The Effects of Tobacco Control Policies on Tobacco Products, Tar, and Nicotine Purchases among Adults: Evidence from Household Panel Data
Kilts Center for Marketing at Chicago Booth – Nielsen Dataset Paper Series 1-045
63 Pages Posted: 4 Mar 2015 Last revised: 28 Aug 2016
Date Written: February 5, 2016
Abstract
We analyze the Nielsen Homescan Consumer Panel to estimate the effects of tobacco policies on tobacco-related purchases using within-household variation. We also match purchases to cigarette contents from NHANES. Higher cigarette taxes reduce cigarette purchases and increase smoking cessation product purchases, while estimates of smoking ban effects are less precisely estimated. Smokeless tobacco (SLT) taxes lead to reductions in SLT use but also lead to substitution among SLT products. We find evidence that cigarette taxes induce purchases of cigarettes with higher tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide contents, but this compensatory behavior is overwhelmed by the reduction in cigarettes purchased.
Keywords: cigarette smoking, cigarette taxes, smokeless tobacco taxes, compensating behavior
JEL Classification: D12, I12, I18
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
