Cigarette taxes and smoking among sexual minority adults

Christopher S. Carpenter and Dario Sansone

Journal of Health Economics, 2021, vol. 79, issue C

Abstract: We provide the first quasi-experimental evidence on the relationship between cigarette taxes and smoking among sexual minority adults, a group that has been understudied in past research. We use large samples of individuals in same-sex households (a large share of whom are sexual minorities in same-sex romantic relationships) from the 1996–2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. We find that cigarette taxes significantly reduced smoking among men and women in same-sex households, and the effects we find for men in same-sex households are very robust and significantly larger than the associated effects for men in different-sex households (the vast majority of whom are heterosexual married or partnered men). For men in same-sex households, we find no unintended consequences of higher cigarette taxes on other risky behaviors, and in fact we find that cigarette taxes are associated with significant improvements in self-rated health for men in same-sex households. These results suggest that the sizable disparities in adult smoking rates between heterosexual and sexual minority men would have been even larger in the absence of stricter tobacco control policy. However, in line with previous research indicating that cigarette taxes have ‘lost their bite’, we find no significant relationship between cigarette taxes and sexual minority smoking in more recent years.

Keywords: LGBT; Cigarette tax; Smoking; Health disparities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H20 H71 I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Cigarette Taxes and Smoking among Sexual Minority Adults (2020)
Working Paper: Cigarette Taxes and Smoking Among Sexual Minority Adults (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:79:y:2021:i:c:s0167629621000771

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2021.102492

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