Governments levy excise taxes on cigarettes for two reasons: to raise revenues and to discourage smoking. Before the surgeon general's 1964 report on the ills of smoking,1 these taxes were justified nprmarily in terms of raising revenue. After the report, however, some form of regulation was needed to battle the newfound public health hazard. Although many other forms of regulation were attempt...

OBJECTIVES The International Monetary Fund encourages privatization of state-owned tobacco industries. Privatization tends to lower cigarette prices, which encourages consumption. This could be countered with effective tax policies. We explored how investment by British American Tobacco (BAT) influenced tax policy in Uzbekistan during privatization there. METHODS We obtained internal document...

Policies related to alcohol pricing, promotion and discounts provide opportunities to address harms associated with alcohol misuse. However, there are important gaps in information and knowledge about the regulations in place across parts of Europe and their impacts on consumer prices and locations of purchase. Using market data, we explored the overall scale and trend of price promotions and d...

BACKGROUND About half of all US states have cigarette minimum price laws (MPLs) that require a per cent mark-up on prices, but research suggests they may not be very effective in raising prices. An alternative type of MPL sets a floor price below which packs cannot be sold, and may be more promising. This new type of MPL policy has only been implemented in 1 city, therefore its benefits relativ...

Evidence suggests that excise taxes on tobacco improve fetal health. It remains unknown if smoke exposure causes lasting harm to children. I find that a one dollar increase in the state cigarette excise tax causes a 10% decrease in sick days from school, and a 4.5% decrease in the likelihood of having two or more doctor visits in the past 12 months. I find suggestive evidence for decreases in e...

Objective: To assess the impact of excise tax increase on smoking behavior of daily smokers aged 15 years and over and to explore the association between smokers’ characteristics and smoking behavior prior and after excise tax increase Material and Method: This cross-sectional survey was performed in 504 daily smokers, who were selected from data records of Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) be...