The Health Gains, Financial Risk Protection Benefits, and Distributional Impact of Increased Tobacco Taxes in Armenia

The majority of Armenian adult males smoke, yet tobacco taxes in Armenia are among the lowest in Europe and Central Asia. Increasing taxes on tobacco is one of the most cost-effective public health interventions, but many opponents often cite regressivity as an argument against tobacco taxation. We...

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Main Authors:	Postolovska, Iryna, Lavado, Rouselle, Tarr, Gillian, Verguet, Stephane
Format:	Journal Article
Published:	Taylor and Francis 2018
Subjects:	EXTENDED COST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS FINANCIAL RISK PROTECTION TOBACCO TAXATION AGENDA SETTING REGRESSIVE TAX PUBLIC HEALTH SIN TAX PUBLIC POLICY ECEA
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29306

id	okr-10986-29306
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-293062021-05-25T10:54:43Z The Health Gains, Financial Risk Protection Benefits, and Distributional Impact of Increased Tobacco Taxes in Armenia Postolovska, Iryna Lavado, Rouselle Tarr, Gillian Verguet, Stephane EXTENDED COST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS FINANCIAL RISK PROTECTION TOBACCO TAXATION AGENDA SETTING REGRESSIVE TAX PUBLIC HEALTH SIN TAX PUBLIC POLICY ECEA The majority of Armenian adult males smoke, yet tobacco taxes in Armenia are among the lowest in Europe and Central Asia. Increasing taxes on tobacco is one of the most cost-effective public health interventions, but many opponents often cite regressivity as an argument against tobacco taxation. We use a mixed-methods approach to study the potential regressivity of tobacco taxation and the extent to which the regressivity argument hindered increases in tobacco taxation in Armenia. First, we pursued an extended cost-effectiveness analysis (ECEA) to assess the health, financial, and distributional consequences (by consumption quintile) of increases in the excise tax on cigarettes in Armenia. We simulated a hypothetical price hike leading to a tax rate of about 75% of the retail price of cigarettes, which would be fully passed on to consumers. Second, we conducted a series of stakeholder interviews to examine the importance of the regressivity argument and identify the factors that allowed tobacco tax increases to be adopted as public policy in Armenia. We show that increased excise taxes would bring large health and financial benefits to Armenian households. Half of tobacco-related premature deaths and 27% of associated poverty cases averted would be concentrated among the bottom 40% of the population. Though regressivity was raised as a concern at the initial stages of the policy adoption process, our qualitative stakeholder analysis indicates that the recent accession to the Eurasian Economic Union and the fiscal constraints faced by the government created a window of opportunity for tobacco taxation to be placed on the policy agenda and adopted as government policy, and the ECEA findings were an important input into the process. 2018-02-02T17:33:19Z 2018-02-02T17:33:19Z 2018-01 Journal Article Health System & Reform 2328-8604 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29306 CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 World Bank Taylor and Francis Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Europe and Central Asia Armenia
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
topic	EXTENDED COST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS FINANCIAL RISK PROTECTION TOBACCO TAXATION AGENDA SETTING REGRESSIVE TAX PUBLIC HEALTH SIN TAX PUBLIC POLICY ECEA
spellingShingle	EXTENDED COST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS FINANCIAL RISK PROTECTION TOBACCO TAXATION AGENDA SETTING REGRESSIVE TAX PUBLIC HEALTH SIN TAX PUBLIC POLICY ECEA Postolovska, Iryna Lavado, Rouselle Tarr, Gillian Verguet, Stephane The Health Gains, Financial Risk Protection Benefits, and Distributional Impact of Increased Tobacco Taxes in Armenia
geographic_facet	Europe and Central Asia Armenia
description	The majority of Armenian adult males smoke, yet tobacco taxes in Armenia are among the lowest in Europe and Central Asia. Increasing taxes on tobacco is one of the most cost-effective public health interventions, but many opponents often cite regressivity as an argument against tobacco taxation. We use a mixed-methods approach to study the potential regressivity of tobacco taxation and the extent to which the regressivity argument hindered increases in tobacco taxation in Armenia. First, we pursued an extended cost-effectiveness analysis (ECEA) to assess the health, financial, and distributional consequences (by consumption quintile) of increases in the excise tax on cigarettes in Armenia. We simulated a hypothetical price hike leading to a tax rate of about 75% of the retail price of cigarettes, which would be fully passed on to consumers. Second, we conducted a series of stakeholder interviews to examine the importance of the regressivity argument and identify the factors that allowed tobacco tax increases to be adopted as public policy in Armenia. We show that increased excise taxes would bring large health and financial benefits to Armenian households. Half of tobacco-related premature deaths and 27% of associated poverty cases averted would be concentrated among the bottom 40% of the population. Though regressivity was raised as a concern at the initial stages of the policy adoption process, our qualitative stakeholder analysis indicates that the recent accession to the Eurasian Economic Union and the fiscal constraints faced by the government created a window of opportunity for tobacco taxation to be placed on the policy agenda and adopted as government policy, and the ECEA findings were an important input into the process.
format	Journal Article
author	Postolovska, Iryna Lavado, Rouselle Tarr, Gillian Verguet, Stephane
author_facet	Postolovska, Iryna Lavado, Rouselle Tarr, Gillian Verguet, Stephane
author_sort	Postolovska, Iryna
title	The Health Gains, Financial Risk Protection Benefits, and Distributional Impact of Increased Tobacco Taxes in Armenia
title_short	The Health Gains, Financial Risk Protection Benefits, and Distributional Impact of Increased Tobacco Taxes in Armenia
title_full	The Health Gains, Financial Risk Protection Benefits, and Distributional Impact of Increased Tobacco Taxes in Armenia
title_fullStr	The Health Gains, Financial Risk Protection Benefits, and Distributional Impact of Increased Tobacco Taxes in Armenia
title_full_unstemmed	The Health Gains, Financial Risk Protection Benefits, and Distributional Impact of Increased Tobacco Taxes in Armenia
title_sort	health gains, financial risk protection benefits, and distributional impact of increased tobacco taxes in armenia
publisher	Taylor and Francis
publishDate	2018
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29306
_version_	1764469015851302912

The Health Gains, Financial Risk Protection Benefits, and Distributional Impact of Increased Tobacco Taxes in Armenia

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