Tobacco taxes and illicit cigarette trade in Colombia.

Tobacco taxes and illicit cigarette trade in Colombia. Econ Hum Biol. 2020 Jun 28;39:100902 Authors: Gallego JM, Llorente B, Maldonado N, Otálvaro-Ramírez S, Rodríguez-Lesmes P Abstract This paper estimates the short-term impact of a twofold increase of the tobacco excise tax on consumption of illicit cigarette trade in Colombia. Using data collected before and after the tax increase from a novel smoker survey (DEICS-Col), the impact is estimated as the change in the probability that a smoker has illicit cigarettes. The methodology follows a difference-in-differences strategy, measuring the year-to-year variation of the proportion of illicit cigarettes between smokers who report buying low-priced cigarettes (the highest treatment intensity) and those who bought high-priced cigarettes (lowest treatment intensity). Estimations of the impact show an average increase of 4-5 percentage points on the proportion of illicit cigarettes relative to an initial penetration of low-priced illicit cigarettes of nearly 5.1 %. PMID: 32622932 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Economics and Human Biology - Category: Biology Authors: Tags: Econ Hum Biol Source Type: research