Cigarette Affordability in China, 2001-2016
This study investigates the affordability of cigarettes in China between 2001 and 2016. In the past two decades, China has achieved unprecedented economic growth rates. The country’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP) has increased at an avera...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/130301492424519317/Cigarette-affordability-in-China-2001-2016 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26423 |
| Summary: | This study investigates the
affordability of cigarettes in China between 2001 and 2016.
In the past two decades, China has achieved unprecedented
economic growth rates. The country’s per capita gross
domestic product (GDP) has increased at an average annual
rate of 10 percent. Rapid economic growth increases people’s
purchasing power and makes cigarettes more affordable, as
income gains overrun cigarette price increases. The results
show that average-price cigarettes in China were 1.85 times
more affordable in 2016 than in 2001, while the cheapest
category of cigarettes, typically consumed by low-income
persons, became 2.09 times more affordable over this period.
Thus, cheap cigarettes aimed at low income Chinese consumers
exhibit higher levels of affordability, and have increased
their affordability faster, than other cigarettes aimed at
average income consumers. The study estimates the
affordability elasticity of cigarette consumption in China
at -0.6, suggesting that a 10 percent increase in cigarette
affordability will result in 6.01 percent increase in
cigarette consumption. Cigarette affordability in China has
also increased in comparison with other countries. China’s
cigarette affordability was still at a low level compared
with other countries in the 1990s, but increased quickly and
to a high level within just two decades. Findings from this
study have important implications for tax policy, pertaining
to tobacco prices and tobacco control. These findings
confirm that for tax increases to reduce the number of
smokers and deaths in China, policy makers need to review
the potential effects of rising income and prices with a
focus on reducing cigarette affordability. It is also
important to look at affordability not only on average but
by income group - in this study proxied by using average and
rural incomes. |
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