development
6 Results
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News
New WHO Report Finds Declines in Smoking Among Males For First Time Ever
A recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO) found that, for the first time ever, the number of males using tobacco is projected to decline globally. From a starting point of 1.093 billion in 2018, the report authors project 2 million fewer smokers in 2020 and 6 million fewer by 2025. This represents an…
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An Opportunity for Meaningful Public Health Progress: Zambia’s Pending Tobacco Control Legislation
In late November of 2019, Zambia’s finance minister, Bwalya Ng’andu, helped to officially inaugurate a new cigarette factory in the Multi Facility Economic Zone in the south of the nation’s capital, Lusaka. Mr. Ng’andu noted that it was the kind of investment that Zambia was seeking because it boosts revenue. Unfortunately, this viewpoint is incredibly…
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News
Why do farmers cultivate tobacco leaf? Evidence from Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa is a major and increasingly important producer of tobacco leaf for the global market. In the last decade, there has been a marked shift in tobacco leaf production from high income countries to Africa. Both the size of the area under tobacco cultivation and amount of tobacco leaf produced have increased markedly in…
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News
Why Do Farmers Grow Tobacco? Evidence from Farmers in Indonesia and the Philippines
The supply of tobacco remains a pressing challenge to tobacco control. In the last two decades, there has been an increase in tobacco leaf production, especially in low- and middle-income countries where tobacco remains a popular and even dominant cash crop in some countries. This growth is happening despite a slow global decline in tobacco…
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News
Summers-Bloomberg Report Emphasizes Role of Excise Taxes in Health Promotion
The father of free markets, Adam Smith, made the case in his seminal book The Wealth of Nations (written in 1776) that “Sugar, rum, and tobacco, are commodities which are no where necessaries of life, which are become objects of almost universal consumption, and which are therefore extremely proper subjects of taxation.” Today, the Bloomberg…
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News
Cigarette consumption has been increasing in Bangladesh even after a decade of tax and price increases: What went wrong?
Despite a high share of tax in price (greater than the WHO’s 75% benchmark) with periodic tax and price increases, cigarette consumption has been increasing in Bangladesh over the last decade. Between 2006-07 and 2016-17, the volume of tax-paid cigarette sales increased by 83%. At the same time, the share of low-price cigarette consumption increased…