Cigarette Affordability Research Articles

Cigarette price, affordability and smoking prevalence in the European Union

To describe current and recent changes in cigarette affordability across the current 27 European Union (EU) Member States, and to assess the impact of these changes on smoking prevalence in countries that were EU members in 2004 (old Member States) compared to countries that have joined since 2004 (new Member States). Investigation of cigarette affordability using the minutes of labour measure, and comparisons of changes in affordability, tax and smoking prevalence in old and new EU Member States. Current 27 EU Member States. European Union. Cigarette prices, overall tax yield and incidence, hourly wages and smoking prevalence in the EU were obtained from published sources, and the affordability of the EU Most Popular Price Category (MPPC) cigarettes estimated as the number of minutes of labour required to earn the price of 20 cigarettes in the years 2003, 2006 and 2009. The mean [standard deviation (SD)] number of minutes of labour required to purchase 20 MPPC cigarettes in EU Member States in 2009 was 31.3 (SD 10.7), but ranged fourfold across the EU, and was significantly higher in new than old Member States. The number of minutes of labour measure increased more, although not significantly so, between 2003 and 2009 in new [mean (SD) 12.1 (10.9)] than in old [6.7 (4.0)] Member States, largely because of proportionately higher increases in taxation. However, there was no correlation between change in affordability and change in smoking prevalence in recent years. Cigarette affordability varies substantially and cigarettes are generally becoming less affordable in European Union Member States. However, these reductions in affordability do not appear to have impacted substantially on smoking prevalence in recent years.

Targeting the affordability of cigarettes: a new benchmark for taxation policy in low-income and-middle-income countries

ObjectivesTo investigate the appropriateness of tax incidence (the percentage of the retail price occupied by taxes) benchmarking in low-income and-middle-income countries (LMICs) with rapidly growing economies and to explore the...

The Impact of Cigarette Taxes and Advertising on the Demand for Cigarettes in Ukraine

Cigarette consumption in Ukraine is increasing while the cigarettes are becoming more affordable due to low taxes and raising income. The impact of cigarette prices and taxes on cigarette consumption is unclear due to the limited research evidence using the local data. This study estimates the sensitivity of Ukraine population to cigarette prices and the affordability of cigarettes using the macro level data in order to predict the effectiveness of cigarette tax policy. Monthly time-series data available from 1997 to 2006 in Ukraine were used to estimate the generalized least square model with an AR(1) process to investigate the impact of cigarette price/tax, household income, the affordability of cigarettes and the volume of tobacco advertising on Ukraine domestic cigarette sales while controlling for other factors. Our analyses demonstrate a strong positive association between cigarette sales and household income as well as a strong positive association between cigarette sales and tobacco advertising activity. The population is found to have relatively low sensitivity to cigarette prices and cigarette taxes, but the impact of cigarettes' affordability is statistically significant, even though also of low magnitude. We speculate that the lower sensitivity to cigarette prices among Ukraine population is caused by wide price variation allowing smokers to avoid a price increase by brand substitution as well as by low costs of cigarettes, high social acceptance of smoking and limited effort to control tobacco use in Ukraine. Narrowing the cigarette price choices and increasing cigarette prices above the level of inflation and income growth by adopting the appropriate tax policy would likely increase the effectiveness of this tool for controlling the smoking rate in Ukraine as well as yield additional budget revenue gains. In addition, imposing advertising restriction may further help reducing the smoking prevalence.

Cigarette affordability trends: an update and some methodological comments

Objectives:To calculate cigarette affordability for a number of countries using different techniques and data, to investigate trends since 1990 and to assess the appropriateness of different measures of affordability.Design:Two existing...

Investigating cigarette affordability in 60 cities using the cigarette price-daily income ratio

Objective:To investigate cigarette affordability in 60 cities.Methods:Affordability of cigarettes is defined as the ratio of the price of one pack of cigarettes to daily income (cigarette price-daily income ratio: CPDIR)....

An international analysis of cigarette affordability

Objective: To investigate how affordable cigarettes are in developed and developing countries, and to calculate by how much the affordability of cigarettes has changed between 1990 and 2001; and secondly,...

New Zealand's tobacco control programme 1985-1998

OBJECTIVETo review the impact of New Zealand's tobacco control programme from 1985 to 1998 on smoking prevalence and tobacco consumption, and to estimate the scope for further reduction.DESIGNCountry case study;...