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Extending the Debate
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Taxes to reduce teenage smoking?

This chapter's Headline, "Dramatic Rise in Teenage Smoking" (page 97) points out that the falling price for cigarettes during the mid-1990s caused an increase in teenage smoking whereas price hikes during the late 1990s led to a reduction in teenage smoking. As the article notes, the impact of rising and falling prices depends on the price elasticity of demand for cigarettes by teenagers, a statistic investigated by economist Jonathan Gruber

Read the abstract of Gruber's findings at: http://papers.nber.org/papers/w7780 and a non-technical summary at http://www.nber.org/digest/oct00/w7780.html

Should taxes be used to raise the price of cigarettes as a way to reduce teenage smoking?

What are the strongest two arguments in favor of this proposition?
What are the strongest two arguments against this proposition?

(Use price elasticity of demand for cigarettes by high school seniors as measured by Gruber in at least one of your arguments.)








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