A new paper published in the Journal of Health Economics suggests that burdensome taxes on vaping products lead to an increase in cigarette sales.
The co-authors of the peer-reviewed article—including Michael Pesko, a leading tobacco economist in the United States—used the NielsenIQ Retail Scanner Dataset (NRSD) over the years 2013 to 2019, which tracks weekly sales of many national retailers and a large percentage of total sales among drug stores, food stores, dollar stores, club stores and mass merchandisers.
They found that e-cigarette taxes almost fully pass through to consumer retail prices—meaning, in short, that vapers typically have to pay most of the tax. The authors estimate, more specifically, that a $1 increase in e-cigarette taxes increases e-cigarette prices by 90 cents. Policymakers, therefore, heavily influence the retail price of e-cigarettes through tax legislation.
“Our study finds that for every one Juul-sized e-cigarette eliminated as a result of an e-cigarette tax, 1.9 packs [of cigarettes] are purchased instead.”
Alex Norcia – Filter – 2022-09-26.
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