Objective. We examined the relationship between state-level tobacco control expenditures and youth smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption. Methods. We estimated a 2-part model of cigarette demand using data from the 1991 through 2000 nationally representative surveys of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students as part of the Monitoring the Future project. Results. We found that real per capita expenditures on tobacco control had a negative and significant impact on youth smoking prevalence and on the average number of cigarettes smoked by smokers. Conclusions. Had states represented by the Monitoring the Future sample and the District of Columbia spent the minimum amount of money recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of smoking among youths would have been between 3.3% and 13.5% lower than the rate we observed over this period.

Background: While previous studies have demonstrated the efficacy of tobacco control interventions in reducing tobacco use among youth overall, there have been very few studies that examine the potential differential impact of tobacco control policies on various youth subgroups, defined by socio-economic status (SES), race/ethnicity, and gender. Objective: We examined the relationship between state-level cigarette prices and smoke-free air laws and youth smoking prevalence and intensity for various youth sub-populations in the United States. Methods: We estimated a 2-part model of cigarette demand using data from the 1991 through 2010 nationally representative surveys of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students as part of the Monitoring the Future project. Findings: We found that real cigarette prices are strong determinants of youth smoking. Blacks, females, Hispanics, and low-SES subpopulations are found to have a larger price response with respect to smoking prevalence than the full sample. Smoke-free air laws are found to have a negative effect on smoking prevalence for the full sample and for the male, white, and high-SES sub-populations. Conclusions: This research concludes that higher cigarette prices will reduce smoking prevalence rates of Blacks, Hispanics, females, and low-SES subpopulations faster than the overall youth population and other youth sub-populations. Moreover, this research concludes that smoke-free air laws will reduce smoking prevalence for the overall youth population with the largest reductions in high SES and male subpopulations.

Despite the deleterious effects of smokeless tobacco use, very little is known about the effects of tobacco control policies on smokeless tobacco demand. This paper uses data extracted from the 1995–2001 National Youth Risk Behavior Surveys (YRBS) augmented with tobacco taxes, prices and policies to estimate smokeless tobacco demand equations among male high school students. The estimates indicate that higher smokeless tobacco taxes would significantly reduce the number of male students who use smokeless tobacco and the number of days smokeless tobacco users use smokeless tobacco. Moreover, smokeless tobacco products and cigarettes were found to be economic complements in consumption.

This paper reports on the first econometric study to examine the determinants of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) demand. Pooled cross-sectional time-series scanner-based data for 50 major metropolitan markets in the United States covering the period between the second quarter 1996 and the third quarter 1999 are used in the analysis. Fixed-effects modeling is employed to assess the impact of NRT prices, cigarette prices, and other determinants on NRT demand. The estimates indicate that decreases in the price of NRT and increases in the price of cigarettes would lead to substantial increases in per-capita sales of NRT products. The average own-price elasticity of demand, which measures the responsiveness of consumer demand for NRT products to changes in the price of NRT, for Nicoderm CQ and Nicorette, is −2.33 and −2.46, respectively. The average cross-price elasticity of demand, which measures the responsiveness of consumer demand for NRT products to changes in the price of cigarettes, for Nicoderm CQ and Nicorette, is 0.772 and 0.764, respectively.