Smoking initiation among youth: the role of cigarette excise taxes and prices by race/ethnicity and gender.

ABSTRACT: Existing evidence for the role of cigarette excise taxes and prices as significant determinants of youth smoking initiation is mixed. A few studies have considered the possibility that the impact of cigarette taxes and prices might differ by gender or race/ethnicity. In this paper, we address the role of cigarette taxes and prices on youth smoking initiation using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort and discrete-time survival methods. We present results overall and by gender, race/ethnicity, and gender by race/ethnicity. We examine initiation over the age range during which youth are most at risk of initiation and over a period in which substantial changes have occurred in tax and price. The result for cigarette excise taxes is small and mixed across alternative specifica

SUBMITTER: Nonnemaker JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3110587 | biostudies-literature | 2011 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature