The Impact of Cannabis Use on Health

Summary Chronic daily cannabis use has been shown to have long term harmful health effects, which in turn is expected to reduce labour market productivity. The evidence is less clear on the health impact of less frequent consumption, which is the more typical mode of use, and previous empirical studies fail to find robust evidence of an adverse impact of these modes of use on labour market productivity. This paper attempts to shed some light on this issue by directly estimating the impact of cannabis consumption in the past week and past year on health status using information on prime age individuals living in Australia. We find that cannabis use does reduce self-assessed health status, with the effect of weekly use being of a similar magnitude as smoking cigarettes daily. Moreover, we find evidence of a dose-response relationship in the health impact of cannabis use, with annual use having roughly half the impact of weekly use.Helpful comments on an earlier draft were received from Jan van Ours, Rosalie Pacula, two anonymous referees and participants at the 81st Annual Conference of the Western Economic Association International.     

Who Are the Potential Smokers of Smuggled Cigarettes?

Although smuggled cigarettes have been a prevalent problem and a severe challenge to public health and welfare around the world, little is known about the behavior associated with smoking smuggled cigarettes and the issue is difficult to study due to data limitations. By means of a population‐based tobacco survey conducted in Taiwan, the present paper applies a latent class model to identify potential smokers who are either currently or will at some point in the future be consuming smuggled cigarettes. This methodology, in contrast to the traditional discrete models, allows potential smokers who are more inclined to smoke smuggled cigarettes to be endogenously classified. The empirical results indicate that socio‐demographic factors do increase the inclination to smoke smuggled cigarettes after unobserved heterogeneity has been accounted for.     

浅谈加强烟草行业市场管理的方法

加强专卖管理既是规范卷烟市场秩序、满足市场卷烟供应的有效手段,也是维护行业生产经营秩序、营造良好内外环境、实现行业长远发展的根本保证。烟草行业应全力推进专卖管理工作上水平,在队伍建设、卷烟打假、内部监管等方面下功夫,推进"卷烟上水平"顺利开展。     

Smoke Gets in Their Eyes? Third-Person Effects of Electronic Cigarette Advertising

This study examined the relationship between smoker status and attitudes toward e-cigarette usage, third-person perceptions of e-cigarette advertising, and support for regulation of e-cigarette advertising within the context of a media-saturated environment. Survey results (n = 615) indicated that participants perceived e-cigarette advertisements as having a more powerful effect on others than on themselves and that nonsmokers perceived this more strongly than did smokers. Nonsmokers were found to have more negative attitudes toward e-cigarette use than smokers. Mediation analysis indicated support for a serial indirect effect of smoker status on support for regulation through attitudes toward e-cigarettes and third-person perceptions.     

The Role of Retail Prices and Promotions in Determining Cigarette Brand Market Shares

Over the past two decades, two forms of price competition have emerged within the cigarette industry: the introduction and spread of discount and deep discount cigarettes and the increased use of price-related promotions. In this paper, we use quarterly market-level, scanner-based data on cigarette prices, promotions, and sales for 50 US markets over the period from 1994-IV through 2002-II to examine the impact of price and promotions on market shares for premium, discount, and deep discount brand cigarettes. Our estimates indicate that changes in relative prices, including those resulting from promotions, account for much of observed changes in market shares.     

American youth consumption of licit and illicit substances

Using a representative sample of the 2001 National School‐based Youth Risk Behavior Survey, this study investigated the contemporaneous and intertemporal relationship between the use of licit and illicit substances by American youth between the ages 12 and 18. The results indicated a strong contemporaneous relationship between smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, and using cocaine. The results supported the gateway hypothesis indicating that prior smoking of cigarettes is significantly associated with the probability of current marijuana and cocaine use, as prior drinking of alcohol is significantly associated with the probability of current marijuana and cocaine use. The results also showed that males had a higher probability of using cocaine than females, whereas black students had a higher probability of smoking marijuana and using cocaine than white students. Age and race were associated with marijuana and cocaine use, but cocaine use was further linked with the factors of gender, region, and metropolitan area. These findings could have implications for public policies regarding prevention.     

Distinguishing the Source of Market Power

Structural models used to measure market power, though widely employed, continue to be criticized. We compare alternative market power tests, including nonparametric and Solow residual-based (SRB) tests. We develop SRB methods that permit nested testing for both monopolistic and monopsonistic market power by the same firm. These tests and a set of nonparametric tests are implemented to examine market power exertion by U.S. cigarette manufacturers from 1977 to 1993. All tests indicate that cigarette manufacturers exerted monopsonistic power in the upstream tobacco market. They are mixed on whether monopolistic power exertion was exerted in the downstream market.     

“七匹狼”香烟的品牌营销策略研究

国内烟草市场新一轮格局竞争变得日趋激烈。在这样市场环境下,龙岩卷烟厂必须建立有效的品牌营销,将"七匹狼"发展成为国内烟草行业中知名度高的品牌,并且正在由地方性品牌向国内知名品牌转变的过程。通过对龙岩卷烟厂"七匹狼"品牌现状的研究,试图分析出"七匹狼"目前存在的问题,探求"七匹狼"香烟向全国性品牌发展的营销策略。     

贵州省卷烟消费影响因素及结构特征研究

对贵州省产卷烟省内消费量及其影响因素进行了协整分析,结果显示:卷烟消费总量及各类烟消费量与国内生产总值、人口数之间均存在长期均衡关系。在协整回归基础上,建立了描述贵州省卷烟消费短期动态变化规律的误差修正模型。最后,运用西方消费理论,结合贵州省卷烟消费实际,对实证结果进行了解释与分析,并得出相关结论与建议。     

Cigarette and Alcohol Expenditures in Malaysia: Implications for Anti‐Smoking and Drinking Policies*

A number of studies have examined alcohol and cigarette consumption, but none have explored demand for both products simultaneously even though consumption decisions are likely often related. The present study uses microdata from the 2009/2010 Malaysian Household Expenditure Survey. A novel bivariate Tobit model that accounts for error heteroscedasticity is used to estimate Malaysian consumers' decisions to purchase cigarettes and alcohol and amount spent for each. The results indicate that household income and regional location, and the age, gender, education level and occupation type of the household head are associated with consumption decisions and expenditure levels, with some variation by ethnic group, suggesting the importance of these characteristics in policy deliberations to reduce consumption.