The health, financial and distributional consequences of increases in the tobacco excise tax among smokers in Lebanon.

ABSTRACT: Tobacco use is a significant risk factor for the leading causes of death worldwide, including cancer, heart disease and stroke. Most of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, where tobacco-related deaths are also rising rapidly. Taxation is one of the most effective tobacco control measures, yet evidence on the distributional impact of tobacco taxation in low- and middle-income countries remains scant. This paper considers the financial and health effects, by socio-economic class, of increasing tobacco taxes in Lebanon, a middle-income country. An Almost Ideal Demand System is used to estimate price elasticities of demand for tobacco products. Extended cost-effectiveness analysis (ECEA) methods are applied to quantify, across quintiles of socio-economic status, the health

SUBMITTER: Salti N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5115647 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature