Health Economics

Health Economics

To estimate the relationship between changes in cigarette tax rates and changes in youth smoking
rates, you should follow the steps below and describe in your report the details of how you
completed each step.
1. Identify one state that has changed its cigarette tax rate between 2009 and 2011. Document
the cigarette tax rate for this state for each year from 2008 through 2012. Describe why the
state changed its cigarette tax rate and include citations to the references that you use to
describe why this change occurred. To find information about why the state changed its
cigarette tax rate, you should search through media articles from the state newspapers, read
through any legislation, and describe how the funds will be used.
2. Identify three states that did not change their cigarette tax rates between 2008 and 2012.
Document the cigarette tax rate for each of these states for each year from 2008 through
2012.
3. Find and document in your report the prevalence of youth smoking for these four states from
2008 through 2012.
4. Graph the prevalence of youth smoking for these four states from 2008 through 2012. The
year should be the x-axis and the youth smoking rate should be the y-axis.
5. Calculate the changes in youth smoking rates for each state from 2009 until the year of the
cigarette tax change. Describe how these changes differ for the state that changed its tax rate
compared to each of the other three states.
6. Calculate the change in youth smoking rates for each state from the year before the year of
the cigarette tax change to the year of the cigarette tax change and each subsequent year.
Describe how these changes differ for the state that changed its tax rate compared to each of
the other three states.
7. Calculate the difference between the changes calculated from step #6 in the state that
changed its tax rate and the change in each other state for each year.
8. How do your responses compare to the estimates in Carpenter and Cook (2008)? Why do
your estimates differ from theirs?
9. Why might your estimates from step #7 not represent the causal effect of the change in
cigarette tax rates on youth smoking rates?