title: Higher price, fewer packs: evaluating a tobacco tax increase with cigarette sales data.
abstract: In 2013, Minnesota increased cigarette taxes by $1.75, the largest US state increase since 2000. We obtained convenience store data of cigarette sales from January 2012 to December 2013 from the Nielsen Company. Analysis revealed significantly greater year-to-year reductions in numbers of packs purchased during posttax (-12.1%) than pretax (-3.2%; P<.001) periods. The results provide contemporary evidence that, despite reduced prevalence and increased tobacco control efforts, tax increases remain an effective tobacco control strategy.
authors.affiliation: Michael S. Amato and Raymond G. Boyle are with ClearWay Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. Betsy Brock is with the Association for Nonsmokers-Minnesota, Saint Paul.
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Amato
authors.forename: Raymond G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Boyle
authors.forename: Betsy
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Brock
mesh_terms: D003132:Commerce / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008910:Minnesota; D012907:Smoking / Q000191:economics*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D013660:Taxes / Q000191:economics*; D062789:Tobacco Products / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014922:Wisconsin