Cutting the Tobacco Excise Won’t Stop the Illegal Trade. This is How Other Countries Solved the Problem
Authors: Isabel Meciar, Cheneal Puljević, and Coral Gartner; published on The Conversation The Coalition has proposed slashing the tobacco excise, the federal tax on tobacco products, by 80%. It claims cheaper legal cigarettes will draw people who smoke away from the illicit market and deprive organized crime of its profits. The... Read More about Cutting the Tobacco Excise Won’t Stop the Illegal Trade. This is How Other Countries Solved the Problem
Press Release: Alcohol Is Too Cheap, and It’s Costing Lives and Tax Revenue
New report finds alcohol prices are abysmally low almost everywhere, and alcohol taxes mostly fail to realize their full public health and revenue potential. Alcohol use costs 2.6 million lives every year and over 2% of GDP in much of the world. Despite these harms, there is an immense gap between current alcohol tax policies and evidenc... Read More about Press Release: Alcohol Is Too Cheap, and It’s Costing Lives and Tax Revenue
Tobacco Atlas Country Factsheets, Now Updated with Latest Data, Highlight Opportunities for Policy Makers
The Tobacco Atlas, produced by experts at Economics for Health and Vital Strategies, continues to serve as a crucial resource for the tobacco control community globally. This includes succinct chapters outlining challenges related to the tobacco epidemic and proven solutions, the Cost Recovery and Revenue Estimator (CoRRE) tool, and much... Read More about Tobacco Atlas Country Factsheets, Now Updated with Latest Data, Highlight Opportunities for Policy MakersWorld No Tobacco Day 2026: Responding to the Growing Threat of Emerging Tobacco & Nicotine Products
On World No Tobacco Day 2026, Economics for Health joins with our tobacco control community to recognize the progress towards reducing tobacco use over the last several decades. Cigarette consumption, specifically, is on the decline in much of the world due to concerted efforts to deter smokers with both price and non-price measures. At t... Read More about World No Tobacco Day 2026: Responding to the Growing Threat of Emerging Tobacco & Nicotine ProductsLessons from Indiana: Raising Taxes on Tobacco to Reduce Consumption & Raise Revenues
With the rise in popularity of emerging tobacco and nicotine products, tax policy lags in many parts of the world, often allowing users to easily switch to cheaper alternatives. International best practices counsel that governments should raise taxes on all products to drive down initiation of any product and to decrease consumption acros... Read More about Lessons from Indiana: Raising Taxes on Tobacco to Reduce Consumption & Raise RevenuesEconomics for Health Presents New Research on Illicit Tobacco, E-Cigarettes, and Cannabis Retail at SRNT 2026
Earlier this month, three team members from Economics for Health participated in Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco's (SRNT) 2026 Annual Meeting and presented their latest research on tobacco use, e-cigarettes, and cannabis. The studies examined how policies shape youth substance use and whether common assumptions about illicit... Read More about Economics for Health Presents New Research on Illicit Tobacco, E-Cigarettes, and Cannabis Retail at SRNT 2026Responding to Your Cigarette Tax Scorecard Questions
As many of you may know, the Economics for Health team released the fourth edition of the Cigarette Tax Scorecard, with a launch webinar at the end of 2025. We were very excited to see the level of engagement with the Scorecard, including in terms of the technical aspects, as well as the broader findings and their policy implications. Bel... Read More about Responding to Your Cigarette Tax Scorecard Questions