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The Design of Tobacco Control Policies: Taxation, Antismoking Campaigns, and Smoking Bans
1 : Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
2 : Università degli Studi dell'Insubria
* : Corresponding author
We examine the optimal design of policies directed at regulating tobacco consumption through three types of instruments: (i) an excise tax hindering consumption by increasing the price of cigarettes, (ii) prevention programs helping smokers to make consumption choices that are more time consistent, and (iii) smoking bans directly restricting tobacco use. We find that taxation helps curbing the inefficiencies arising from the behavior of the `average' smoker. Antismoking programs and smoking bans usefully complement taxation by specifically targeting smokers with above-average health harms and smoking externalities in different locations, respectively.
