title: Bans on electronic cigarette sales to minors and smoking among high school students.
abstract: Many states have banned electronic cigarette sales to minors under the rationale that using e-cigarettes leads to smoking traditional combustion cigarettes. Such sales bans would be counterproductive, however, if e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes are substitutes, as bans might push teenagers back to smoking the more dangerous combustion cigarettes. We provide evidence that these sales bans reduce the incidence of smoking conventional cigarettes among high school seniors. Moreover, we provide evidence suggesting that sales bans reduced e-cigarette usage as well. This evidence suggests that not only are e-cigarettes and smoking regular cigarettes positively related and not substitutes for young people, banning retail sales to minors is an effective policy tool in reducing tobacco use.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, Finance and Global Business, William Paterson University, United States.
authors.forename: Rahi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Abouk
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, United States. Electronic address: sjadams@uwm.edu.
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Adams
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D066300:Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D033242:Minors / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Electronic cigarettes; Retail regulation; Youth smoking