Analysis of Slovakia’s Conventional and Emerging Nicotine Products Market Structure

This Report was written by Institute of Economic Research SAS (IER SAS) in Slovakia. The report estimates own- and cross-price elasticities for manufactured cigarettes, heated tobacco products (HTPs), and nicotine pouches using retail scanner data from January 2022 to June 2025. The data shows that HTP sales are concentrated in larger cities and in the western part of the country. E-cigarette and e-liquid sales have increased since 2022, with similar geographic concentration patterns to HTPs, although sales remain low relative to HTPs and manufactured cigarettes. Nicotine pouch sales, meanwhile, are clustered in the central north-west region. The researchers estimate the own-price elasticities of manufactured cigarettes and HTPs at -0.448 and -0.325. The own-price elasticity for nicotine pouches was also negative, but not significant, while limitations with the scanner data prevented the estimation of elasticities for e-cigarettes and e-liquids. The cross-price elasticities show asymmetric relationships between products, as HTPs are economic substitutes for manufactured cigarettes, which are complements for nicotine pouches, which in turn are substitutes for HTPs. The findings also suggest that a 10% increase in income would increase demand for nicotine pouches by 5.78%, HTPs by 3.15%, and manufactured cigarettes by 2.25%. The report concludes with recommendations for decision makers to consider these relationships when developing policies to effectively reduce consumption of tobacco and nicotine products.