Blog

The Pass-Through of Alcohol Excise Taxes to Prices in OECD Countries: Filling In the Evidence Gap

June 08, 2020 Increasing alcohol excise taxes is the most effective regulatory policy to reduce excessive drinking and related harms. Tax pass-through rates measure how much prices increase when taxes are increased by one unit – a critical step in the mechanism of excise taxes as an alcohol control policy. If prices are increased more than tax in... Read More about The Pass-Through of Alcohol Excise Taxes to Prices in OECD Countries: Filling In the Evidence Gap

World No Tobacco Day 2020: Tobacco Taxes Are a Powerful Tool Against Tobacco Industry Efforts to Attract Youth

May 27, 2020 Sunday, May 31, 2020 is World No Tobacco Day and this year’s theme focuses on efforts by the tobacco industry to target young people. Raising tobacco taxes is one of the most effective tobacco control policy tools to discourage tobacco use in the overall population, but even more so for young people. In observation of World No Tobac... Read More about World No Tobacco Day 2020: Tobacco Taxes Are a Powerful Tool Against Tobacco Industry Efforts to Attract Youth

A Closer Look at Tobacco Tax Progressivity: New Research from UIC Think Tank Partners in Latin America

May 12, 2020 Most research on the distributional impacts of tobacco taxation focuses on the shift in the tax burden for different income groups that occurs immediately after a tax increase. In most countries, poorer people spend proportionately more of their income on tobacco products, and they are much more sensitive to tax increases. Thus, when face... Read More about A Closer Look at Tobacco Tax Progressivity: New Research from UIC Think Tank Partners in Latin America

Tobacconomics Partners Share Tobacco Tax Research Findings at ECToH

February 27, 2020 The 8th European Conference on Tobacco or Health (ECToH) took place in Berlin, Germany last week. Tobacconomics team members and Southeastern European think tank partners all participated and presented their research. Here now are the highlights. Of Special Note: Tobacconomics’ researcher Aida Djika from the Development Solutions A... Read More about Tobacconomics Partners Share Tobacco Tax Research Findings at ECToH

Starting the New Year out Right: Tobacco Tax Increase in Indonesia is Set to Raise Tobacco Prices

January 09, 2020 Indonesia has been the focus of attention for tobacco control advocates for some time. The high and growing rates of smoking combined with a large population have also made it a commercial priority for the tobacco industry over the last few decades. Historically, Indonesia has a weak record on tobacco taxes, which in turn resulted in it... Read More about Starting the New Year out Right: Tobacco Tax Increase in Indonesia is Set to Raise Tobacco Prices

A Good First Step: Mexico Updates its Tobacco Tax for Inflation

December 10, 2019 Mexico has just approved an update for inflation to the Special Tax on Production and Services (IEPS) for tobacco as part of its “Economic Package for the Fiscal Year 2020”—the first update of the tax since 2011. For 2020, this translates to an increase of the IEPS from 0.35 to 0.498 pesos per stick, or from 7 to 9.96 pe... Read More about A Good First Step: Mexico Updates its Tobacco Tax for Inflation

Increasing Tobacco Taxes ≠ Increasing Illicit Trade: A Look at Brazil’s Working Group

November 11, 2019 In response to growing concerns about illicit trade, the Brazilian government formed a working group in March of this year to determine whether reducing tobacco taxes would solve the problem. Although formed in response to industry arguments that tobacco taxes were the cause of increasing illicit trade, within six months, this group concl... Read More about Increasing Tobacco Taxes ≠ Increasing Illicit Trade: A Look at Brazil’s Working Group

Interview: Dr. Frank Chaloupka Discusses the Effectiveness of Taxes on Soda, Tobacco, and Alcohol

October 23, 2019 Knowledgeable Magazine interviewed Dr. Frank Chaloupka for the article "Do Soda Taxes Work?" on October 18, 2019. The article examines taxing harmful products to discourage their consumption. It provides an interesting perspective on the research Dr. Chaloupka and Tobacconomics has done around increasing taxes on products, such as sugar-s... Read More about Interview: Dr. Frank Chaloupka Discusses the Effectiveness of Taxes on Soda, Tobacco, and Alcohol

Continuing Our Commitment to Partner Capacity Building: Serbia and Indonesia

September 09, 2019 The Tobacconomics team’s exciting work continued through July and August in Serbia and Indonesia to continue to help build partner capacity in those regions. Earlier this year, in our March blog series, we shared our approach to capacity building, broken down into a series of steps. The first is determining our ‘why&rsqu... Read More about Continuing Our Commitment to Partner Capacity Building: Serbia and Indonesia

Capacity Building in Action: Highlights from the Tobacconomics Asia Partners’ Meeting

July 24, 2019 In our March blog series on the Tobacconomics approach to capacity building, we explored how we collaborate with think tanks in low- and middle-income countries. In this blog, we will be sharing one of our recent capacity building experiences—a gathering of our think tank partners from South and Southeast Asia. As we explained in o... Read More about Capacity Building in Action: Highlights from the Tobacconomics Asia Partners’ Meeting