Session: Youth & Smoking
Room: Hollister 306
Time: Mon 10:15-11:45

Presenter: Renu Joseph (University of Illinois at Chicago. Economics)

Discussant: Julie Shi (Boston University)

Abstract

The tobacco epidemic has been rapidly spreading in many of the poorer nations of the world, including India. Though studies on youth smoking in countries like the U.S. are abundant, comparable research on Indian youth has been largely ignored due to lack of data at the national level. My work aims to bridge this disparity in tobacco research. This study is the first to draw on Indian data to examine the price elasticity of demand among youth for three tobacco products, cigarettes, beedi and gutka. For this study, I make use of a new national survey which examines various practices, patterns and prevalence of tobacco use among 73,356 youth aged 13-15 years in India. I apply the two-part model of cigarette demand to model cigarette, beedi and gutka demand in India. The results from the models reaffirm that that higher prices can be an effective deterrent to youth tobacco use, irrespective of the form of tobacco. Overall price elasticities are
estimated to be -0.4 for cigarettes and -1.4 for beedis. Among the products considered, beedis have the highest participation price elasticities (-2.70), followed by gutka (-0.58) and finally cigarettes (-0.40), which are the least price elastic. Conditional demand elasticities indicate that overall, price has a stronger effect on the decision to smoke, rather than on average consumption. Income elasticities are positive and are the highest for cigarettes and lowest for beedis. The detailed gender analysis of tobacco use indicates that while prevalence rates are lower among girls than boys for multiple tobacco products, they have higher price elasticities when compared to boys. The study also finds that anti-tobacco efforts at the school level have a significant impact on tobacco use and advocates a combination of price and non-price measures to tackle the bourgeoning epidemic.

Key Terms

Youth tobacco use,Price elasticity,India

Authors:

Renu Joseph (UIC. Economics)