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Why Increasing Tobacco Taxes in El Salvador is an Excellent Idea

Currently, about 430,000 people smoke in El Salvador, roughly half of them will die from tobacco consumption.  A significant proportion of young Salvadorans (one in ten) consume tobacco, which typically translates into higher healthcare costs and, for many, illnesses that will disable them and / or lead to death. Every year, about 1,600 people die…

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Ethiopia is increasing its tobacco taxes by introducing a specific excise

Last week Ethiopia passed a landmark bill increasing taxes on tobacco products. The tax reform came almost exactly a year after the country passed its comprehensive tobacco control law introducing broad smoke-free policies, advertising bans, large pictorial warnings on packs, new age restrictions on cigarette purchasing as well as banning electronic cigarettes and flavored tobacco.…

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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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As cigarettes become more affordable, the number of Zambian smokers increases

Economic analysis of tobacco product demand in Zambia The new study used data from the 2012 and 2014 waves of the ITC Survey to examine the probability of smoking in Zambia. The modeling allowed for precise analyses of the impact of price on cigarette use in the country. Switching between factory-made and roll-your-own cigarettes was…