Cigarette Taxes and Smoking Participation: Evidence from Recent Tax Increases in Canada
Department of Economics, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montréal, Quebec, H3G 1M8, Canada
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Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2011, 8(5), 1583-1600; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph8051583
Received: 29 March 2011
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Revised: 30 April 2011
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Accepted: 10 May 2011
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Published: 16 May 2011
Using the Canadian National Population Health Survey and the recent tax variation across Canadian provinces, this paper examines the impact of cigarette taxes on smoking participation. Consistent with the literature, we find evidence of a heterogeneous response to cigarette taxes among different groups of smokers. Contrary to most studies, we find that the middle age group—which constitutes the largest fraction of smokers in our sample—is largely unresponsive to taxes. While cigarette taxes remain popular with policy makers as an anti-smoking measure, identifying the socio-demographic characteristics of smokers who respond differentially to tax increase will help in designing appropriate supplementary measures to reduce smoking.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Azagba, S.; Sharaf, M. Cigarette Taxes and Smoking Participation: Evidence from Recent Tax Increases in Canada. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2011, 8, 1583-1600. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph8051583
AMA Style
Azagba S, Sharaf M. Cigarette Taxes and Smoking Participation: Evidence from Recent Tax Increases in Canada. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2011; 8(5):1583-1600. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph8051583
Chicago/Turabian StyleAzagba, Sunday, and Mesbah Sharaf. 2011. "Cigarette Taxes and Smoking Participation: Evidence from Recent Tax Increases in Canada" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 8, no. 5: 1583-1600. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph8051583
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