tobacco taxation
10 Results
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News
Price elasticity or affordability elasticity? A puzzle solved for practitioners of tobacco taxation
Price elasticity measures the sensitivity of consumers to changes in real prices, holding real income constant, while affordability elasticity measures the sensitivity of consumers to price changes adjusted for inflation and income changes. The existing scientific literature on tobacco demand abounds in both price and affordability elasticity estimates, without providing a clear explanation of the…
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Research shows that Pakistan is more than ready for a significant tobacco excise tax increase
One in five adults in Pakistan use tobacco on a regular basis. This leads to serious consequences for the country’s public health and its economy: just over 160,000 deaths and an economic loss of 143,208 million rupees occur every year due to tobacco-related illnesses. In recent years, Pakistan has taken important steps towards protecting people…
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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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Philip Morris makes profit on cigarettes smuggled to Ecuador and now seeks government compensation for these same cigarettes
Philip Morris lucra de los cigarrillos contrabandeados al Ecuador y ahora busca compensación del gobierno por estos mismos cigarrillos Proteger la salud de los ciudadanos de los efectos letales del consumo de tabaco ha sido una de las prioridades claras del gobierno de Ecuador. En los últimos años, el país ha implementado estrictas políticas de…
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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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Differences in cigarette prices across EU Member States affect cross-border cigarette purchases
The European Union (EU) has been one of the world’s champions of high cigarette excise taxes. Thanks in part to its Tobacco Tax Directive, the EU is the region with the highest average cigarette prices in the world. As we wrote in a previous blog post, the European Commission is, encouragingly, working on a possible…
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The Tobacco Industry Uses Pricing to Undermine Tobacco Tax Policy: Evidence from Bangladesh
The effectiveness of a tax increase in reducing tobacco use depends on the extent to which the tobacco industry passes on the tax increase to consumers. It is well-known by now that the industry absorbs tax increases more commonly for cheaper brands, for which demand is more price sensitive and holding prices down is critical…
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Telling the evidence-based truth about illicit trade in Colombia
Evidencia y espejismos sobre el comercio ilícito de cigarrillos en Colombia Es una experiencia recurrente en muchos países del mundo: la industria tabacalera no escatima esfuerzos para socavar iniciativas de aumento del impuesto al tabaco. Colombia no es la excepción y, desafortunadamente, los medios de comunicación han sido catalizadores, y posiblemente cómplices, de la diseminación…
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News
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…
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News
Tobacco Products in Bangladesh Are Becoming More Affordable
To reverse this troubling trend, there is need for tax and price increases across all tobacco products over and above both inflation and income growth, as well as the creation of a more uniform tax structure. By Nigar Nargis To read more, see Nargis N, Stoklosa M, Drope J, Fong GT, Quah ACK, Driezen P,…