Tobacco Taxation Incidence : Evidence from the Russian Federation

Fuchs, Alan ; Matytsin, Mikhail ; Obukhova, Olga

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: TOBACCO TAX;    TOBACCO CONTROL;    DISTRIBUTIONAL IMPACT;    HEALTH OUTCOMES;    SMOKING;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8626
RP-ID  :  WPS8626

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Despite the well-known positive effectsof tobacco taxes on health outcomes, policy makers avoidrelying on such taxes because of their possible regressiveimpact. Using an extended cost-benefit analysis to estimatethe distributional effect of cigarettes in the RussianFederation, this paper finds that the long-run impact may infact be progressive. The methodology applied incorporatesthe negative price effect caused by an increase in tobaccotaxes, combined with a presumed future reduction in medicalexpenditures and a rise in working years caused by areduction in the rate of smoking among the population. Theanalysis includes estimates of the distributional impacts ofprice rises on cigarettes under various scenarios, based oninformation taken from the Russia Longitudinal MonitoringSurvey -- Higher School of Economics for 2010–16. Onecontribution is the quantification of impacts by allowingprice elasticities to vary across consumption deciles.Overall, cigarette taxes exert a positive long-term effecton household incomes, although the magnitude depends on thestructure of the conditional price elasticity. If thepopulation is more responsive to tobacco price changes, thenit would experience greater gains from the health andextended work-life benefits.