TY  - JOUR
AU  - Lewit,Eugene M.
AU  - Coate,Douglas
AU  - Grossman,Michael
TI  - The Effects of Government Regulation on Teenage Smoking
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 655
PY  - 1982
Y2  - March 1982
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w0655
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w0655.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Eugene Lewit
Children, Families, and Communities
300 Second Street, Suite 200
Los Altos, CA 94022
Tel: 650/917-7175
Fax: 650/941-2273
E-Mail: glewit@packard.org

Douglas Coate

Michael Grossman
Ph.D. Program in Economics
City University of New York Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, 5th Floor
New York, NY  10016-4309
Tel: 212/817-7959
Fax: 212/817-1597
E-Mail: mgrossman@gc.cuny.edu
AB  - We examine the impact of three sets of government regulations on the demand for cigarettes by teenagers in the United States. These are: (1) the excise tax on cigarettes, (2) the Fairness Doctrine of the Federal Communications Commission, which resulted in the airing of anti-smoking messages on radio and television from July 1, 1967 to January 1, 1971,and (3) the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act of 1970, which banned pro-smoking cigarette advertising on radio and television after January 1, 1971.Teenage price elasticities of demand for cigarettes are substantial and much larger than the corresponding adult price elasticities. The teenage smoking participation elasticity equals -1.2, and the quantity smoked elasticity equals -1.4. It follows that, if future reductions in youth smoking are desired, an increase in the Federal excise tax is a potent policy to accomplish this goal. The contention of the proponents of the advertising ban that the Fairness Doctrine failed in the case of teenagers is incorrect. According to our results, the doctrine had a substantial negative impact on teenage smoking participation rates. Extrapolations suggest that the advertising ban was no better or worse a policy than the Fairness Doctrine.
ER  -