Taxing times? Smoker response to tax increases

Taxing tobacco is one of the most effective means to reduce smoking but concerns about the impact on poor smokers are a barrier. New Zealand resumed increasing tobacco taxes in April 2010. The paper hypothesised smokers would attempt to stop smoking and/or adapt, changing their smoking behaviours in response to price increases. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The authors conducted a door knock survey of smokers and recent ex-smokers who were home when visited. Participants (n=428) were from socioeconomically deprived neighbourhoods of Auckland with large proportions of Māori and Pacific Island people.

Many smokers (66 per cent) attempted to quit an average of 3 times. More than 40 per cent stopped for at least 24 hours without intending to quit altogether, monthly or more. Consumption reduced among 40 per cent of participants, by an average 7.1 cigarettes daily. More than a fifth of participants switched to cheaper brands. Switching from factory made cigarettes to roll your own tobacco (6 per cent) or vice versa (5 per cent) was uncommon.

The method resulted in a low response rate. Tobacco tax is associated with reduced consumption and high levels of frequent quit attempts in socioeconomically deprived communities therefore our study supports tax increases as a means of reducing smoking.

This is the first paper to investigate the effect of large recent New Zealand tobacco tax increases on low-income smokers’ adaptive behaviours.