Determinants of Household Alcohol and Tobacco Expenditures in Turkey

Abstract

In line with the recommendation by the World Health Organization (WHO), prices are used as policy instruments in many countries in discouraging the consumption of alcohol and tobacco products. Due to the complexity in the interplay of the household sociodemographic and economic factors in these countries, the effectiveness of price-related intervention tends to be limited in scope and unsustainable. We aim at determining the key factors in the spending decisions and the levels of spending on alcohol and tobacco products using a multivariate sample selection model, estimated with recent survey data collected by the Turkish Statistical Institute. We identify a number of sociodemographic and economic factors related to the excessive use of these products in the country. These findings can inform policy deliberation in curbing the use of alcohol and tobacco products.