Responsiveness of Demand for E-Cigarettes
The prevalence and use of e-cigarettes has increased significantly over the past few years. Indeed, recent data reveal e-cigarette use may have surpassed tobacco cigarette use amongst teenagers. Growing market share means that e-cigarettes now occupy a central position in tobacco policy. Accordingly, regulators at all levels of government are poised to make interventions for economic and public health interests. Central to this agenda are both prices and taxation. However, despite their importance, there is little research on these issues. The proposed session provides such investigation with a unified set of research articles on economic aspects of e-cigarette prices and taxation. The session will be chaired by Dhaval Dave of Bentley University and the discussants are Lauren Nicholas of Johns Hopkins University, Ashley Bradford and Grace Adams, both of the University of Georgia. Paper 1 of the session will be presented by John Buckell of Yale University. This paper uses a stated preference experiment to elicit own and cross-price elasticities for e-cigarettes among different types of adult smokers in the US. Paper 2 will be presented by Kyle Rozema of Northwestern University School of Law. This paper develops a model for optimal taxation for e-cigarettes accounting for distributional impacts, behavioral failure and “gateway” effects (from e-cigarette to conventional cigarettes). Paper 3 will be presented by Melissa Oney of Temple University. This paper investigates why states pass e-cigarette regulations across legislative, demographic and public venue categories.