Tobacco excise and declining tobacco consumption: the case of Papua New Guinea.
S Chapman and
J Richardson
Department of Community Medicine, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Excise elasticities of demand for non-cigarette tobacco andcigarettes were calculated for Papua New Guinea for the 14 years1973-86. Respectively, these were -0.50 and -0.71. This meansthat 10 percent increases in cigarette and non-cigarette tobaccoexcise are associated with an estimated 7.1 percent fall indemand for cigarettes and a 5 percent decrease in the demandfor tobacco. As tax (excise) elasticities would normally besignificantly smaller than price elasticities, these resultsimply that the consumption of cigarettes and tobacco in PapuaNew Guinea are more responsive to prices than in the UnitedStates and other Western countries. The level of excise is thereforean important and practical instrument for the control of consumption.These elasticities appear to be the first reported for a developingcountry. It is suggested that if they are indicative of consumerbehavior in lower income countries then increasing tobacco andcigarette excise should be considered as an important strategyfor the control of smoking in these countries which, becauseof their large populations, are huge markets for tobacco productsand thus major targets for tobacco control measures.
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