Who Pays Cigarette Taxes? The Impact of Consumer Price Search

Philip DeCicca, Donald Kenkel and Feng Liu
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Philip DeCicca

No 15942, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We conduct an empirical study of the impact of consumer price-search on the shifting of cigarette excise taxes to consumer prices. We use novel data on the prices smokers report actually paying for cigarettes. We document substantial price dispersion. We find that cigarette taxes are shifted at lower rates to the prices paid by consumers who undertake more price search - carton buyers, and especially, smokers who buy cartons of cigarettes in a state other than their state of residence. We also find suggestive evidence that taxes are shifted at slightly higher rates to the prices paid by non-daily smokers, less addicted smokers, and smokers of light cigarettes.

JEL-codes: H22 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mkt and nep-pub
Note: EH
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Published as Philip DeCicca & Donald Kenkel & Feng Liu, 2013. "Who Pays Cigarette Taxes? The Impact of Consumer Price Search," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(2), pages 516-529, May.

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