Intended and Unintended Effects of E-cigarette Taxes on Youth Tobacco Use

Rahi Abouk, Charles Courtemanche, Dhaval Dave, Bo Feng, Abigail S. Friedman, Johanna Maclean, Michael Pesko, Joseph J. Sabia and Samuel Safford

No 29216, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Over the past decade, rising youth use of e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) has contributed to aggressive regulation by state and local governments. Between 2010 and mid-2019, ten states and two large counties adopted ENDS taxes. We use two large national surveys (Monitoring the Future and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System) to estimate the impact of ENDS taxes on youth tobacco use. We find that ENDS taxes reduce youth ENDS consumption, with estimated ENDS tax elasticities of -0.06 to -0.21. However, we estimate sizable positive cigarette cross-tax effects, suggesting economic substitution between cigarettes and ENDS for youth. These substitution effects are particularly large for frequent cigarette smoking. We conclude that the unintended effects of ENDS taxation may considerably undercut or even outweigh any public health gains.

JEL-codes: H2 I1 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-isf, nep-law and nep-pub
Note: CH EH LE PE
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published as Rahi Abouk & Charles Courtemanche & Dhaval Dave & Bo Feng & Abigail S. Friedman & Johanna Catherine Maclean & Michael F. Pesko & Joseph J. Sabia & Samuel Safford, 2022. "Intended and Unintended Effects of E-cigarette Taxes on Youth Tobacco Use," Journal of Health Economics, .

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Related works:
Journal Article: Intended and unintended effects of e-cigarette taxes on youth tobacco use (2023)
Working Paper: Intended and Unintended Effects of E-cigarette Taxes on Youth Tobacco Use (2022)
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