63 research outputs found

    The synergistic effect of cigarette taxes on the consumption of cigarettes, alcohol and betel nuts

    Get PDF
    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Consumption of cigarettes and alcoholic beverages creates serious health consequences for individuals and overwhelming financial burdens for governments around the world. In Asia, a third stimulant ā€“ betel nuts ā€“ increases this burden exponentially. For example, individuals who simultaneously smoke, chew betel nuts and drink alcohol are approximately 123 times more likely to develop oral, pharyngeal and laryngeal cancer than are those who do not.</p> <p>To discourage consumption of cigarettes, the government of Taiwan has imposed three taxes over the last two decades. It now wishes to lower consumption of betel nuts. To assist in this effort, our study poses two questions: 1) Will the imposition of an NT10HealthTaxoncigaretteseffectivelyreducecigaretteconsumption?and2)Willthiscigarettetaxalsoreduceconsumptionofalcoholicbeveragesandbetelnuts?Toanswerthesequestions,weanalyzetheeffectoftheNT10 Health Tax on cigarettes effectively reduce cigarette consumption? and 2) Will this cigarette tax also reduce consumption of alcoholic beverages and betel nuts? To answer these questions, we analyze the effect of the NT10 tax on overall cigarette consumption as well as the cross price elasticities of cigarettes, betel nuts, and alcoholic beverages.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To establish the Central Bureau of Statistics demand function, we used cigarette, betel nut, and alcoholic beverage price and sales volume data for the years 1972ā€“2002. To estimate the overall demand price elasticity of cigarettes, betel nuts, and alcoholic beverages, we used a seemingly unrelated regression analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We find that the NT10healthtaxoncigaretteswillreducecigaretteconsumptionbyasignificant27.2210 health tax on cigarettes will reduce cigarette consumption by a significant 27.22%. We also find that cigarettes, betel nuts, and alcoholic beverages have similar inherent price elasticities of -0.6571, -0.5871, and -0.6261 respectively. Because of this complementary relationship, the NT10 health tax on cigarettes will reduce betel nut consumption by 20.07% and alcohol consumption by 7.5%.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The assessment of a health tax on cigarettes as a smoking control policy tool yields a win-win outcome for both government and consumers because it not only reduces cigarette consumption, but it also reduces betel nut and alcoholic beverage consumption due to a synergistic relationship. Revenues generated by the tax can be used to fund city and county smoking control programs as well as to meet the health insurance system's current financial shortfall.</p

    Should a Country Follow WHOā€™s Guidelines on the Pathway to Universal Health Coverage? A Case Illustration with the Chinese Healthcare System

    No full text

    Institutionalization of Higher Vocational Education in China: A Neoinstitutionalist Perspective

    No full text

    Human Capital in Republican and New China: Regional and Long-Term Trends

    No full text
    In recent decades it has been debated whether Chinaā€™s growth performance is primarily driven by capital accumulation (more inputs) or rather by an increase in Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth (better technology and institutions). The answer to this question may offer a glimpse into the future trends of Chinaā€™s economic growth. If the perspiration factors are dominant, one should expect a slowdown in the growth of the Chinese economy in accordance with the traditional Solow model. If, however, TFP growth drives per capita GDP growth, one can expect a strong convergence of China toward the technological frontier. In this paper we combine historical, long-term analysis with quantitative methods to find out whether the effect of (both human- and physical) capital and TFP on growth changed over the last 90 years. While partly relying on existing data, lack of information required us to estimate a new dataset on human capital for the provinces of China between 1922 and 2010 which allows us to decompose the observed economic growth into accumulation driven and TFP driven parts. We find that general technological development improved steadily over the course of the 1990s and 2000s
    • ā€¦
    corecore