Easier to afford, more likely to be smoked? Marlboro indices show higher cigarette affordability in the South and East of Europe

Kristijan Fidanovski, Biljana Jovanovikj, Nóra Kungl and Hana Ross ()
Additional contact information
Hana Ross: The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw, https://wiiw.ac.at/hana-ross-s-2155.html

No 101, wiiw Policy Notes from The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw

Abstract: Cigarette prices vary widely across Europe and are difficult to compare, not least because of brand availability and income differences. We have developed two indices (Marlboro-Water and Marlboro-Eggs), comparing the price of a well-known brand sold in 34 European countries to that of two widely used consumer goods to provide intuitive estimates of cigarette affordability. Our indices show that cigarettes tend to be most affordable in the South and the East of Europe, where tobacco taxes tend to be lower and smoking rates higher. By expressing the affordability of cigarettes relative to widely used consumer goods, this study aims to shed further light on the well-established links between tobacco taxes, prices and consumption, highlighting the benefits of policies that aim to reduce cigarette affordability.

Keywords: Marlboro indices; cigarette affordability; cigarette taxation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages including 1 Table and 8 Figures
Date: 2025-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-inv
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published as wiiw Policy Note

Downloads: (external link)
https://wiiw.ac.at/easier-to-afford-more-likely-to ... -europe-dlp-7416.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:wii:pnotes:pn:101

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://wiiw.ac.at

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in wiiw Policy Notes from The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Customer service ().