Background Increases in tobacco taxes are widely regarded as a highly effective strategy for reducing tobacco use and its consequences. Methods The voluminous literature on tobacco taxes is assessed, drawing heavily from seminal and recent publications reviewing the evidence on the impact of tobacco taxes on tobacco use and related outcomes, as well as that on tobacco tax administration. Results Well over 100 studies, including a growing number from low-income and middle-income countries, clearly demonstrate that tobacco excise taxes are a powerful tool for reducing tobacco use while at the same time providing a reliable source of government revenues. Significant increases in tobacco taxes that increase tobacco product prices encourage current tobacco users to stop using, prevent potential users from taking up tobacco use, and reduce consumption among those that continue to use, with the greatest impact on the young and the poor. Global experiences with tobacco taxation and tax administration have been used by WHO to develop a set of ‘best practices’ for maximising the effectiveness of tobacco taxation. Conclusions Significant increases in tobacco taxes are a highly effective tobacco control strategy and lead to significant improvements in public health. The positive health impact is even greater when some of the revenues generated by tobacco tax increases are used to support tobacco control, health promotion and/or other health-related activities and programmes. In general, oppositional arguments that higher taxes will have harmful economic effects are false or overstated.

Objective: To examine tobacco company documents to determine what the companies knew about the impact of cigarette prices on smoking among youth, young adults, and adults, and to evaluate how this understanding affected their pricing and price related marketing strategies.Methods: Data for this study come from tobacco industry documents contained in the Youth and Marketing database created by the Roswell Park Cancer Institute and available through http:// roswell.tobaccodocuments.org, supplemented with documents obtained fromhttp://www.tobaccodocuments.org.Results: Tobacco company documents provide clear evidence on the impact of cigarette prices on cigarette smoking, describing how tax related and other price increases lead to significant reductions in smoking, particularly among young persons. This information was very important in developing the industry's pricing strategies, including the development of lower price branded generics and the pass through of cigarette excise tax increases, and in developing a variety of price related marketing efforts, including multi-pack discounts, couponing, and others.Conclusions: Pricing and price related promotions are among the most important marketing tools employed by tobacco companies. Future tobacco control efforts that aim to raise prices and limit price related marketing efforts are likely to be important in achieving reductions in tobacco use and the public health toll caused by tobacco.

In countries around the world, tobacco use, excessive alcohol consumption, and consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) are significant contributors to the global epidemic of noncommunicable diseases. As a consequence, they contribute, as well, to excess health care costs and productivity losses. A large and growing body of research documents that taxes specific to such products, known as excise taxes, reduce consumption of these products and thereby diminish their adverse health consequences. Although such taxation has historically been motivated primarily by revenue generation, governments are increasingly using these taxes to discourage unhealthy consumption. We review the global evidence on the impact of taxes and prices on the consumption of these products and the health and social consequences. We then evaluate arguments commonly raised against these taxes, identify best practices in excise tax policy, and conclude with a summary of the current status of tobacco, alcohol, and SSB excise taxes globally.

OBJECTIVE To determine if there are differences in young people's responsiveness to price and tobacco control policies for population subgroups and to examine whether or not these differences, if they exist, can explain sex and racial differences in trends in the prevalence of smoking in young people in the United States. DESIGN Use cross-sectional and intertemporal variation in local and state tobacco control policies and prices to calculate demand responses to these policies using regression analysis techniques. SUBJECTS A nationally representative sample of American eighth grade (ages 13–14 years), 10th grade (15–16 years) and 12th grade (17–18 years) students obtained from the 1992–1994 Monitoring the Future surveys. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Thirty-day smoking prevalence. RESULTS Young men are much more responsive to changes in the price of cigarettes than young women. The prevalence elasticity for young men is almost twice as large as that for young women. Smoking rates of young black men are significantly more responsive to changes in price than young white men. Significant differences in responsiveness to particular tobacco control policies also exist. These differences, however, explain relatively little of the differences in smoking prevalence among young population subgroups. CONCLUSIONS Policymakers need to keep in mind that there is not a “one-size fits all” strategy for discouraging smoking among young people.