Intended and Unintended Effects of E-cigarette Taxes on Youth Tobacco Use

Arbeitspapier

Over the past decade, rising youth use of e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) has contributed to aggressive regulation by state and local governments. Between 2010 and mid-2019, ten states and two large counties adopted ENDS taxes. We use two large national surveys (Monitoring the Future and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System) to estimate the impact of ENDS taxes on youth tobacco use. We find that ENDS taxes reduce youth ENDS consumption, with estimated ENDS tax elasticities of -0.06 to -0.21. However, we estimate sizable positive cigarette cross-tax effects, suggesting economic substitution between cigarettes and ENDS for youth. These substitution effects are particularly large for frequent cigarette smoking. We conclude that the unintended effects of ENDS taxation may considerably undercut or even outweigh any public health gains.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 15655

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
• Subject: electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) ; e-cigarettes ; vaping ; cigarettes ; smoking ; taxes ; youth

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Abouk, Rahi ; Courtemanche, Charles ; Dave, Dhaval M. ; Feng, Bo ; Friedman, Abigail S. ; Maclean, J. Catherine ; Pesko, Michael ; Sabia, Joseph J. ; Safford, Samuel
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2022

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/267392
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET