Martín Álvarez Juan Manuel, Almeida Alejandro, Golpe Antonio A, Vides José Carlos
Facultad de Empresa y Comunicación. Universidad Internacional de la Rioja UNIR. Logroño. España.
Departamento de Economía y Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Física, Matemáticas y Computación. Universidad de Huelva. Huelva. España.
Rev Esp Salud Publica. 2021 Feb 9;95:e202102026.
The price elasticity of tobacco emerges as an instrument for minimizing tobacco consumption, sustained by the idea that although tobacco has an addictive nature, an increase in its price causes a decrease in its consumption. However, the price is not the only component of tobacco consumption studied in the literature. Some studies include income as an explanatory component of tobacco consumption. These studies conclude that income affects tobacco consumption positively.
In this paper, the factors that affect the consumption of cigarettes are measured for the Spanish market using time series data from 1957 to 2018 and by applying the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index LMDI method. The novel application of this method to this body of literature allows us to verify how effective the price policies that the government has implemented against the consumption of cigarettes have been.
Our results reveal that income is a determining factor that sometimes nullifies the effect of policies when governments increase the price of cigarettes by taxes. In order to reduce the prevalence of smokers, the increase in the price of tobacco must consider the effect of income on consumption, so that it does not cancel the effects of health policy.
It is strongly recommended that tax authorities consider these results before applying anti-smoking policies. If the authorities do not do so, it is possible that they will not obtain the expected results in terms of minimized the cigarette consumption.
烟草的价格弹性成为减少烟草消费的一种手段，其依据是尽管烟草具有成瘾性，但价格上涨会导致其消费量下降。然而，价格并非文献中研究的烟草消费的唯一组成部分。一些研究将收入作为烟草消费的一个解释性因素。这些研究得出结论，收入对烟草消费有正向影响。
在本文中，利用1957年至2018年的时间序列数据，并应用对数平均迪氏指数（LMDI）方法，对西班牙市场影响卷烟消费的因素进行了测度。该方法在这一文献领域的新应用使我们能够验证政府实施的针对卷烟消费的价格政策的有效性如何。
我们的结果表明，收入是一个决定性因素，当政府通过征税提高卷烟价格时，收入有时会抵消政策的效果。为了降低吸烟者的比例，烟草价格的上涨必须考虑收入对消费的影响，以免抵消健康政策的效果。
强烈建议税务机关在实施禁烟政策之前考虑这些结果。如果当局不这样做，就有可能在使卷烟消费最小化方面无法取得预期效果。
