Smoking for the poor and vaping for the rich? Distributional concerns for novel nicotine delivery systems

Vincenzo Carrieri and Andrew Jones

Economics Letters, 2016, vol. 149, issue C, 71-74

Abstract: We compare income-related inequalities in the use of traditional smoking and of novel nicotine delivery systems (NDS), such as e-cigarettes and other smokeless products, and we apply a regression-based decomposition method for rank-dependent inequality measures to estimate the source of inequalities in the use of NDS. Using data from the 2013 wave of the Health Survey for England, we find that pro-poor inequality is greater for traditional smoking than for smoking and the smokeless products combined. Significant pro-rich inequalities are found in e-cig and other NDS consumption due to higher take-up among richer, younger and better-educated smokers. These patterns might lead to a long-run equilibrium with both higher average health and higher socioeconomic health inequalities.

Keywords: Smoking; Income-related health inequalities; Electronic-cigarettes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:149:y:2016:i:c:p:71-74

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2016.10.012

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