TY  - JOUR
AU  - Thursby,Marie C.
AU  - Thursby,Jerry G.
TI  - Interstate Cigarette Bootlegging: Extent, Revenue Losses, and Effects   of Government Intervention
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 4763
PY  - 1994
Y2  - June 1994
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4763
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4763.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Marie C. Thursby
College of Management
Georgia Institute of Technology
800 West Peachtree Street, NW
Atlanta, GA 30308-1149
Tel: 404/894-6249
Fax: 404/385-4894
E-Mail: marie.thursby@mgt.gatech.edu

Jerry Thursby
Georgia Institute of Technology
E-Mail: jerry.thursby@mgt.gatech.edu
AB  - In this paper, we develop and estimate a model of commercial smuggling in which some, but not all, firms smuggle a portion of the cigarettes they sell.  The model is used to examine the effects on interstate cigarette smuggling of the Contraband Cigarette Act and a change in the federal excise tax.  We find that both policies have unintentional effects.  While the Contraband Cigarette Act was imposed to reduce interstate smuggling, we find it had the opposite effect. In contrast, an increase in the federal tax is not intended to affect smuggling, but we find it increases the portion of cigarette sales that is commercially smuggled.
ER  -