Synthesizing Econometric Evidence: The Case of Demand Elasticity Estimates

Philip DeCicca and Donald Kenkel

Risk Analysis, 2015, vol. 35, issue 6, 1073-1085

Abstract: Econometric estimates of the responsiveness of health‐related consumer demand to higher prices are often key ingredients for risk policy analysis. We review the potential advantages and challenges of synthesizing econometric evidence on the price‐responsiveness of consumer demand. We draw on examples of research on consumer demand for health‐related goods, especially cigarettes. We argue that the overarching goal of research synthesis in this context is to provide policy‐relevant evidence for broad‐brush conclusions. We propose three main criteria to select among research synthesis methods. We discuss how in principle and in current practice synthesis of research on the price‐elasticity of smoking meets our proposed criteria. Our analysis of current practice also contributes to academic research on the specific policy question of the effectiveness of higher cigarette prices to reduce smoking. Although we point out challenges and limitations, we believe more work on research synthesis in this area will be productive and important.

Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12363

Related works:
Working Paper: Synthesizing Econometric Evidence: The Case of Demand Elasticity Estimates (2015)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:riskan:v:35:y:2015:i:6:p:1073-1085

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Risk Analysis from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().