 Flavorants and addiction: An empirical analysis of cigarette bans and taxationJiawei Chen and Colin Reinhardt International Journal of Industrial Organization, 2025, vol. 99, issue C Abstract: We evaluate the proposed FDA menthol cigarette ban using aggregate-level retail data and micro-level household data. The model incorporates addiction and household heterogeneity, with a focus on low-income households and the Black community, who consume menthol cigarettes the most. The ban reduces cigarette usage by 12.6% and the Black smoking rate by 35%, while demand for e-cigarettes and cessation products increases by 4.9% and 1.7%, respectively. A $1.02-per-pack cigarette sales tax is as effective as the menthol cigarette ban in reducing cigarette usage, while resulting in a smaller reduction in consumer surplus across most demographic groups, especially Black Americans. Including non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes in the ban reduces cigarette consumption similarly, while e-cigarette usage decreases by 46%. Keywords: Demand estimation; Consumer heterogeneity; Tobacco consumption; Addiction; Public health intervention; Policy evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:indorg:v:99:y:2025:i:c:s0167718725000141 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijindorg.2025.103147 Access Statistics for this article International Journal of Industrial Organization is currently edited by P. Bajari, B. Caillaud and N. Gandal More articles in International Journal of Industrial Organization from Elsevier |
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