IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/7535.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Cigarettes and Alcohol: Substitutes or Complements?

Author

Listed:
  • Sandra L. Decker
  • Amy Ellen Schwartz

Abstract

Taxation of cigarettes and alcohol can raise revenue and reduce consumption of goods with negative external effects. Despite medical and psychological evidence linking their consumption, little previous work has investigated the significance of cross-price effects in cigarette and alcohol consumption. We use individual-level data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to investigate cigarette and alcohol consumption in the US, estimating both own and cross-price elasticities. Results suggest significant cross-price effects. Specifically, we find that higher alcohol prices decrease both alcohol consumption and smoking participation (suggesting a complementarity in consumption), while higher cigarette prices tend to decrease smoking participation but increase drinking. The significance of these findings suggests that further work is warranted to better understand the social and economic relationship between cigarette and alcohol consumption.

Suggested Citation

  • Sandra L. Decker & Amy Ellen Schwartz, 2000. "Cigarettes and Alcohol: Substitutes or Complements?," NBER Working Papers 7535, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7535
    Note: EH
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w7535.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin Browning, 1987. "Eating, Drinking, Smoking, and Testing the Lifecycle Hypothesis," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 102(2), pages 329-345.
    2. Smith, P.F. & Remington, P.L. & Williamson, D.F. & Anda, R.F., 1990. "A comparison of alcohol sales data with survey data on self-reported alcohol use in 21 states," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 80(3), pages 309-312.
    3. Kenkel, Donald S, 1993. "Drinking, Driving, and Deterrence: The Effectiveness and Social Costs of Alternative Policies," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(2), pages 877-913, October.
    4. Cordes, Joseph J. & Nicholson, Eric & Sammartino, Frank, 1990. "Raising Revenue by Taxing Activities with Social Costs," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 43(3), pages 343-56, September.
    5. Grossman, Michael & Chaloupka, Frank J & Sirtalan, Ismail, 1998. "An Empirical Analysis of Alcohol Addiction: Results from the Monitoring the Future Panels," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 36(1), pages 39-48, January.
    6. Becker, Gary S & Murphy, Kevin M, 1988. "A Theory of Rational Addiction," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(4), pages 675-700, August.
    7. Lewit, Eugene M. & Coate, Douglas, 1982. "The potential for using excise taxes to reduce smoking," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 121-145, August.
    8. Jones, Andrew M, 1989. "A Systems Approach to the Demand for Alcohol and Tobacco," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 85-105, April.
    9. Wasserman, Jeffrey & Manning, Willard G. & Newhouse, Joseph P. & Winkler, John D., 1991. "The effects of excise taxes and regulations on cigarette smoking," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 43-64, May.
    10. Manning, Willard G. & Blumberg, Linda & Moulton, Lawrence H., 1995. "The demand for alcohol: The differential response to price," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 123-148, June.
    11. Frank J. Chaloupka & Henry Saffer, 1992. "Clean Indoor Air Laws And The Demand For Cigarettes," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 10(2), pages 72-83, April.
    12. Cordes, Joseph J. & Nicholson, Eric & Sammartino, Frank, 1990. "Raising Revenue by Taxing Activities With Social Costs," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 43(3), pages 343-356, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sijbren Cnossen, 2006. "Alcohol taxation and regulation in the European Union," CPB Discussion Paper 76.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    2. Sijbren Cnossen & D. Forrest & S. Smith, 2009. "Taxation and regulation of smoking, drinking and gambling in the European Union," CPB Special Publication 76.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    3. Hammar, Henrik & Carlsson, Fredrik, 2001. "Smokers' Decisions To Quit Smoking," Working Papers in Economics 59, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    4. Liu, Jin-Long & Liu, Jin-Tan & Hammitt, James K. & Chou, Shin-Yi, 1999. "The price elasticity of opium in Taiwan, 1914-1942," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 795-810, December.
    5. Cook, Philip J. & Moore, Michael J., 2000. "Alcohol," Handbook of Health Economics, in: A. J. Culyer & J. P. Newhouse (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 30, pages 1629-1673, Elsevier.
    6. Michael Grossman, 1993. "Policy Watch: Alcohol and Cigarette Taxes," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(4), pages 211-222, Fall.
    7. Leah K. Lakdawala & David Simon, 2017. "The Intergenerational Consequences of Tobacco Policy: A Review of Policy's Influence on Maternal Smoking and Child Health," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(1), pages 229-274, July.
    8. Xiaohua Yu & David Abler, 2010. "Interactions between cigarette and alcohol consumption in rural China," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 11(2), pages 151-160, April.
    9. John A. Tauras & Frank J. Chaloupka, 1999. "Price, Clean Indoor Air, and Cigarette Smoking: Evidence from the Longitudinal Data for Young Adults," NBER Working Papers 6937, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Chaloupka, Frank J. & Wechsler, Henry, 1997. "Price, tobacco control policies and smoking among young adults," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 359-373, June.
    11. Cook, Philip J. & Moore, Michael J., 1999. "Alcohol," Working Papers 156, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    12. Frank J. Chaloupka & Michael Grossman, 1996. "Price, Tobacco Control Policies and Youth Smoking," NBER Working Papers 5740, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Gregory J. Colman & Dahlia K. Remler, 2008. "Vertical equity consequences of very high cigarette tax increases: If the poor are the ones smoking, how could cigarette tax increases be progressive?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 376-400.
    14. Jeffrey E. Harris & Sandra W. Chan, 1999. "The continuum‐of‐addiction: cigarette smoking in relation to price among Americans aged 15–29," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(1), pages 81-86, February.
    15. Frank J. Chaloupka & Henry Wechsler, 1995. "The Impact of Price, Availability, and Alcohol Control Policies on Binge Drinking in College," NBER Working Papers 5319, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Dhaval Dave & Henry Saffer, 2007. "Risk Tolerance and Alcohol Demand Among Adults and Older Adults," NBER Working Papers 13482, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. repec:zbw:rwirep:0064 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Tauras, John A., 2004. "Public policy and some-day smoking among adults," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 7(1), pages 1-26, May.
    19. Jeffrey A. Miron, 1997. "The Effects of Alcohol Prohibition on Alcohol Consumption," Papers 0078, Boston University - Industry Studies Programme.
    20. Sijbren Cnossen, 2006. "Alcohol Taxation and Regulation in the European Union," CESifo Working Paper Series 1821, CESifo.
    21. Tauchmann, Harald & Göhlmann, Silja & Requate, Till & Schmidt, Christoph M., 2006. "Tobacco and Alcohol: Complements or Substitutes? - A Statistical Guinea Pig Approach," RWI Discussion Papers 52, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7535. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.