Cigarette Taxes: The Straw to Break the Camel's Back

TEENAGE CIGARETTE SMOKING is sensitive to the price of cigarettes. The most recent research suggests that a 10% increase in price would reduce the number of teenagers who smoke by 7%. If the proposed 43-cent hike in the Federal excise tax rate on cigarettes contained in the Hatch-Kennedy Bill were e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Public health reports (1974) 1997-07, Vol.112 (4), p.290-297
Main Authors: Grossman, Michael, Chaloupka, Frank J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Advertising restrictions
Anti smoking movements
Cigarette industry
Cigarette smoking
Cigarettes
Consumer prices
Excise taxes
Health
Health policy
Humans
Public health
Smoking
Smoking - economics
Smoking - epidemiology
Smoking - legislation & jurisprudence
Tax policy
Taxation
Taxes
Taxes - legislation & jurisprudence
Teenage Smoking
Teenagers
Tobacco industry
Tobacco taxes
United States
United States - epidemiology
Youth
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Summary:TEENAGE CIGARETTE SMOKING is sensitive to the price of cigarettes. The most recent research suggests that a 10% increase in price would reduce the number of teenagers who smoke by 7%. If the proposed 43-cent hike in the Federal excise tax rate on cigarettes contained in the Hatch-Kennedy Bill were enacted, the number of teenage smokers would fall by approximately 16%. This translates into more than 2.6 million fewer smokers and more than 850,000 fewer smoking-related premature deaths in the current cohort of 0 to 17-year-olds. Adjusted for inflation, the current 24-cent-a-pack tax costs the buyer about half of the original cigarette tax of 8 cents imposed in 1951. A substantial tax hike would curb youth smoking; this strategy should move to the forefront of the antismoking campaign.
ISSN:0033-3549
1468-2877