Increasing Taxes on Tobacco in Low and Middle-Income Countries : Hurting or Saving the Poor?

Fuchs Tarlovsky, Alan ; Gonzalez Icaza, Marí ; a Fernanda

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: TAXATION;    TOBACCO TAX;    WELFARE IMPACT;    DISTRIBUTIONAL IMPACT;    TOBACCO PRICE;   

RP-ID  :  151248

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Policy makers hesitate to increasetobacco taxes over concerns about taxes being regressive andpotentially increasing poverty and inequality. This notesummarizes a set of studies of the effects of raisingtobacco taxes in 11 low and middle-income countries using anextended cost-benefit analysis (ECBA) and harmonizednational household budget survey data and introduces theTOBACTAX Tool. The studies find that demand priceelasticities for tobacco products are larger amonglower-income households and that the poor receive thelargest long-term gains from tobacco taxation. Tobacco taxeshave progressive long-term effects due to lower medicalexpenses and added years of productive life, whichcontribute to poverty reduction in most countries studied.TOBACTAX Tool can help replicate such analyses elsewhere.