Playing With Fire Cigarettes, Taxes, and Competition from the Internet

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Goolsble, Austan; Lovenheim, Michael F.; Slemrod, Joel
• 署名单位: University of Chicago; National Bureau of Economic Research; Cornell University; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.2.1.131
• 发表日期: 2010
• 页码: 131-154
• 关键词: Smoking; IMPACT; taxation; border; extent

摘要

This paper documents the rise of the Internet as a source of state tax-free cigarettes and its impact on taxed sales elasticities Using data on cigarette tax rates, taxable cigarette sales and individual smoking rates by state from 1980 to 2005 merged with data on Internet penetration, this paper documents that there has been a substantial increase in the sensitivity of taxable cigarette sales to state tax rates that is correlated with the rise of Internet usage within states The estimates imply that the increased sensitivity from cigarette smuggling over the Internet has lessened the revenue generating potential of cigarette tax increases significantly, although states are still far from the revenue-maximizing tax rates