Relative Tax Rates, Proximity and Cigarette Tax Noncompliance: Evidence from a National Sample of Littered Cigarette Packs / Shu Wang, David Merriman, Frank J. Chaloupka.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wang, Shu.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Merriman, David.

Chaloupka, Frank J.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w22577.

NBER working paper series no. w22577

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Relative Tax Rates, Proximity and Cigarette Tax Noncompliance

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2016.

Summary:

We analyze data about cigarette tax compliance from the first national scale littered cigarette packs collection. We code each pack based on whether an appropriate tax had been paid at the location where it was found. Noncompliance across our 132 sample communities ranges from zero to one hundred percent with an appropriately weighted mean of 21 percent. We provide evidence that noncompliance is due to both cross-border shopping and cigarette trafficking. OLS and binomial logit regressions demonstrate that the financial incentive for non-compliance is the most important explanatory variable and has a statistically and quantitatively significant impact on noncompliance.

Notes:

Print version record

August 2016.