Crowding-out effect of tobacco expenditure and its implications on intra-household resource allocation

The aim of this paper is to examine if tobacco consumption crowds-out consumption of basic needs and whether it has implications for nutrition intake and intra-household resource allocation in developing countries. In the process we also examine whether preference over other commodities for tobacco users and non users vary significantly. Using a nationally representative household sample survey from India for the year 1999-2000, we analyze the pattern of spending on various groups of commodities by the status of tobacco consumption of households. Average per capita per diem intake of nutrients such as calorie, fat and protein were reported to be lower among the high tobacco spending group of households vis-`a-vis the no-spending category. A system of quadratic conditional Engel curves was estimated for a set of ten broad groups of commodities. Separability between tobacco and most other goods was rejected. The results suggest that tobacco consuming households had lower consumption of certain commodities such as milk, clean fuels and entertainment which has direct bearing on mostly children and female members in the household suggesting possible `gender effects' and biases in intra-household resource allocation. Tobacco spending also found to have negative effects on household nutrition intake.tobacco, consumption, poverty, crowd-out, India

An analysis of household's tobacco consumption decisions: Evidence from India

Tobacco products such as bidi and cigarette, both of which are smoked, cater to different kinds of households in India, and analyzing them separately may yield results that are useful for public policy. Hence, we analyze the consumption patterns, socio-economic distribution and the household choice of a variety of tobacco products across rural and urban India. Using a Multinomial Logit Model, we analyze the choice behavior of a household in deciding whether and which tobacco products to consume. Household level data from National Sample Survey in India for the year 1999-2000, which has information on 120,309 households, has been used for this purpose. We find that most forms of tobacco consumption are higher among socially disadvantaged and low-income groups in the country. Variables such as education, sex ratio, alcohol and pan consumption were found to be signicant factors determining tobacco consumption habits of Indian households. The eect of some of the factors on the probability of consumption differs for certain types of tobacco products, increasing some, and decreasing others. Addictive goods such as alcohol and pan were found to be complimentary to tobacco consumption.Tobacco, Bidi, Cigarette, Consumption, Multinomial Logit, India

Price elasticity estimates for tobacco and other addictive goods in India

The tax base of tobacco in India is found to be heavily depended on about fifteen percent of the tobacco users who represent cigarettes smokers. Non-cigarette tobacco products used by the majority of tobacco users are largely out of the tax net. Analysis of the price elasticity of various tobacco products would bring out the potential of tax as an instrument to control tobacco use of any kind. In this context, this paper examines how the demand for a variety of tobacco products and addictive goods such as pan and alcohol respond to changes in prices. The spatial variations of prices that are obtained from a cross section of 120,000 households spread across the country have been used for this purpose. Estimates of price elasticities showed that the own price elasticity estimates of various addictive goods in India ranged between -0.5 to -1.0 with bidis, leaf tobacco and alcohol having elasticities close to unity, cigarettes being the least price elastic of all. As against the general notions regarding the complementarity between cigarettes and alcohol, our study nds that these are substitutes at least in urban India. We also observed that, over a five year period, the addictive goods such as bidis and leaf tobacco in India have become slightly more price responsive while elasticity of cigarettes and pan have stabilized. With some assumptions, it is shown that taxes on cigarettes can be raised nearly 2.5 times the current level while that of bidis can be raised tenfold without any fall in revenue.Tobacco, Bidi, Cigarette, Alcohol, Consumption, Elasticity, India

Price Elasticity Estimates for Tobacco and Other Addictive Goods in India

The tax base of tobacco in India is found to be heavily depended on about fifteen per cent of the tobacco users who represent cigarettes smokers. Non-cigarette tobacco products used by the majority of tobacco users are largely out of the tax net. Analysis of the price elasticity of various tobacco products would bring out the potential of tax as an instrument to control tobacco use of any kind. In this context, this paper examines how the demand for a variety of tobacco products and addictive goods such as pan and alcohol respond to changes in prices. The spatial variations of prices that are obtained from a cross section of 120,000 households spread across the country have been used for this purpose. Estimates of price elasticities showed that the own price elasticity estimates of various addictive goods in India ranged between -0.5 to -1.0 with bidis, leaf tobacco and alcohol having elasticities close to unity, cigarettes being the least price elastic of all. As against the general notions regarding the complementarity between cigarettes and alcohol, our study finds that these are substitutes at least in urban India. We also observed that, over a five year period, the addictive goods such as bidis and leaf tobacco in India have become slightly more price responsive while elasticity of cigarettes and pan have stabilized. With some assumptions, it is shown that taxes on cigarettes can be raised nearly 2.5 times the current level while that of bidis can be raised tenfold without any fall in revenue.Tobacco, Bidi, Cigarette, Alcohol, consumption, Elasticity, India

An Analysis of Household's Tobacco Consumption Decisions : Evidence from India

Tobacco products such as bidi and cigarette, both of which are smoked, cater to different kinds of households in India, and analyzing them separately may yield results that are useful for public policy. Hence, we analyze the consumption patterns, socio-economic distribution and the household choice of a variety of tobacco products across rural and urban India. Using a Multinomial Logit Model, we analyze the choice behavior of a household in deciding whether and which tobacco products to consume. Household level data from National Sample Survey in India for the year 1999-2000, which has information on 120,309 households, has been used for this purpose. We found that most forms of tobacco consumption are higher among socially disadvantaged and low-income groups in the country. Variables such as education, sex ratio, alcohol and pan consumption were found to be signifcant factors determining tobacco consumption habits of Indian households. The effect of some of the factors on the probability of consumption differs for certain types of tobacco products, increasing some, and decreasing others. Addictive goods such as alcohol and pan were found to be complimentary to tobacco consumption.Tobacco, Bidi, Cigarette, consumption, Multinomial Logit, India

Crowding-out Effect of Tobacco Expenditure And Its Implications on Intra-Household Resource Allocation

The aim of this paper is to examine if tobacco consumption crowds-out consumption of basic needs and whether it has implications for nutrition intake and intra-household resource allocation in developing countries. In the process we also examine whether preference over other commodities for tobacco users and non users vary significantly. Using a nationally representative household sample survey from India for the year 1999-2000, we analyze the pattern of spending on various groups of commodities by the status of tobacco consumption of households. Average per capita per diem intake of nutrients such as calorie, fat and protein were reported to be lower among the high tobacco spending group of households vis-`a-vis the no-spending category. A system of quadratic conditional Engel curves was estimated for a set of ten broad groups of commodities. Separability between tobacco and most other goods was rejected. The results suggest that tobacco consuming households had lower consumption of certain commodities such as milk, clean fuels and entertainment which has direct bearing on mostly children and female members in the household suggesting possible gender effects and biases in intra-household resource allocation. Tobacco spending also found to have negative effects on household nutrition intake.Tobacco, consumption, poverty, crowd-out, India.

Complete Zeldovich approximation

We have developed a generalization of the Zeldovich approximation (ZA) that is exact in a wide variety of situations, including plannar, spherical and cilyndrical symmetries. We have shown that this generalization, that we call complete Zeldovich approximation (CZA), is exact to second order at an arbitrary point within any field. For gaussian fields, the third order error have been obtained and shown to be very small. For statistical purposes, the CZA leads to results exact to the third order.Comment: 11 pages+1 figure, accepted in ApJ Letter

Distributed LQG control of a water delivery canal with feedforward from measured consumptions

This work addresses the design of distributed LQG controllers for water delivery canals that include feedforward from local farmer water consumptions. The proposed architecture consists of a network of local control agents, each connected to one of the canal pools and sharing information with their neighbors in order to act in a coordinated way. In order to improve performance, the measurement of the outflows from each pool is used as a feedforward signal. Although the feedforward action is local. It propagates due to the coordinates procedure. The paper presents the distributed LQG algorithm with feedforward and experimental results in a large scale pilot water delivery canal